Date: Sat, 08 May 1999 10:28:10 -0400
From: Albert Henderson <NobleStation@COMPUSERVE.COM>
Subject: NIH e-Biomed proposal
 "STS-L (Science and Technology Section, ACRL)\"" <STS-L@UTKVM1.UTK.EDU>

[cross posted to STS-L and SERIALST]

NIH posted its radical proposal for electronic publications on the
following URL and is requesting comments:

     http://wwww.nih.gov/welcome/director/ebiomed/ebi.htm

The proposal is patterned on the LANL preprint server, with some
new twists.

My impression was that the EBIOMED's authors do not understand
a great deal about publishers, libraries, authors, and editors. I also
wonder about their understanding of policy and the history of
scientific and technical information.  I found many gaps and
inconsistancies. I sent NIH a very critical response, which they may
or may not make public.  I would be pleased to share it with anyone
interested. I certainly did not cover all the bases.

 If I understand it correctly, adoption of the plan would eliminate
collections of advanced research journals at many colleges and
universities.

I would encourage members of the list to read the proposal and either to
submit
comments to NIH or to request further information from NIH for many
questions the proposal left unanswered.

Albert Henderson
Editor, PUBLISHING RESEARCH QUARTERLY
<70244.1532@compuserve.com>
.
.