I second all the thoughts and feelings which have gone before, with the
addendum that the continual appearance and disappearance of titles along
with their 'residual archival trails' is really a disservice to patrons.
I often get inquiries about titles which are parts of 'big deals' where
we have access to titles from, say, 1998-2006 but not the last two years
(because those titles were negotiated out of the consortial title list
and were too expensive to continue as an individual library) and then
have to explain to a frustrated user that indeed we don't have current
title access. In this sense, one cannot really talk about an e-journal
'collection' as such because many of the titles are incomplete or not
current and one has to question the real long-term value of such
practices for our user needs.

Peter V. Picerno
Serials & Electronic Resources Librarian
Asst. Head of Resource Development
Green Library
Florida International University
11200 SW 8th Street
Miami, FL 33199
Ph: 305.348.6279
ppicerno@fiu.edu

Eleanor Cook wrote:
> I'm with Gary on this, I personally am ready to cry uncle and throw in
> the towel with per-title based pricing for packages.
> Our Cambridge package came without per-title pricing this year (and
> last) and everyone howled, but then once we got it, it was easier to
> pay for, we did not have to do an EDI load into the ILS acquisitions
> system, and though you still have to maintain the titles that change
> and those that come in and out of the package, that is a piece of cake
> compared to the management of a giant invoice with lots of per-title
> detail.
> I imagine our serials vendors would probably love this too -- they
> have valiantly been trying to keep this up on their end for us and
> while I have so appreciated the work they've done, maybe it's time to
> quit this and give up.
> The problem of course, is that once you do this, there is probably no
> going back.  What I am concerned about is how the publisher then
> determines the "value" of the package and how that relates to your
> historical journal collection.  Frankly, we are so deep into packages
> now that there is really no way to link back to "historical" prices.
> That's another assumption it is time to give up.
>
> But the economic picture for the near future is rather gloomy, and if
> we don't have per-title pricing, then the publishers need to realize
> that our packages better have some flexibility because there will need
> to be new models of cancellation practice, because guaranteed, there
> will be cancellations of <something> in the future.
>
> Eleanor Cook
> Former serials librarian
>
> Eleanor I. Cook
>
> Professor & Intellectual Property & Copyright Librarian
> Belk Library, ASU Box 32026
> Appalachian State University
> Boone, NC 28608-2026
> 828-262-2786
> 828-262-2773 (fax)
> cookei@appstate.edu