To:     Members of ACQNET and SERIALST

From:   Ann Okerson/Association of Research Libraries

Re:     Publisher Request for Input

We have been discussing with one of the major scientific
societies future strategies for their journal publications
program.  They seek library reactions and input, and so I
suggested to them that we could generate a lot of information
by asking librarians on the Net to respond.  They reacted
with alacrity and enthusiasm to this idea and have given me a
message to post on to you.  Please respond to either of the
lists, or reply to my e-mail, OKERSON@UMDC.Bitnet, or
OKERSON@UMDC.UMD.edu.  (If you respond to the lists, you
won't overload my own e-mail box, whose capacity remains
untested.) I'll batch the responses for them.

Your participation is greatly appreciated.  It's very
rewarding for the library community to be treated as serious
customers and users and to be asked for our opinion.  Reply
by March 15th, end of working day, please.  Thank you.

SCENARIO:

A nonprofit society self-publishes a scientific journal of
19,000 pages per year.  The same information is
simultaneously published in 8 specialty journals geared to
the individual scientists.

If the society discontinued publishing the hard-copy
"consolidated" journal, in favor of 8 hard-copy specialty
journals plus full-text CD-ROM simultaneous publication of
the consolidated journal, how would your library respond?
[Readers, note that price is not given.  I don't know what
the price impact would be, and your comments might query this
or make it a condition of choosing some specific solution,
i.e., "If xxxx, then xxxx"]

Would you

a.      Purchase only the individual specialty journals (hard-
copy)?

b.      Subscribe only to the CD-ROM version of the consolidated
journal?

c.      Purchase the individual specialty journals in hard copy
and subscribe to the consolidated journal on CD-ROM?

d.      Other:

(Please answer all the above, yes or no)

Add any further comments you may have.  Thanks.