ISSN: 1046-3410 NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES N.S. NUMBER 1 -- May 16, 1991 Editor: Marcia Tuttle CONTENTS NS1.1 FROM THE EDITOR, Marcia Tuttle NS1.2 ARL TO PRODUCE DIRECTORY OF ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS, Ann Okerson NS1.3 RUSCHIN ON BEILSTEIN, Siegfried Ruschin NS1.4 SEVENTH INTERNATIONAL LEARNED JOURNALS SEMINAR, Kenneth Kirkland NS1.5 DARTMOUTH'S INTERNAL ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER, Susan George NS1.1 FROM THE EDITOR Marcia Tuttle, TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET. All of you should have received a message a few days ago from Ruth Carter, ALCTS president, and me. If you missed it, and for our 28 new subscribers since the message went out, here's a repeat. The Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) and Marcia Tuttle, Editor of the NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES, announce a transfer of responsibility for the Newsletter. Effective with the next issue the Newsletter will be issued by Marcia Tuttle on an independent basis. This change enables both the Newsletter and ALCTS to move in a variety of new directions. We have benefitted from our mutual undertaking to date and have positive expectations for future endeavors. We would like to thank the members of the Publisher/Vendor-Library Relations Committee, who served as an editorial board. They are: Deana Astle, Mary Elizabeth Clack, Jerry Curtis, Charles Hamaker, and Robert Houbeck. We would like also to recognize the many contributors for their part in the success and usefulness of this electronic newsletter. -- Ruth C. Carter President, Association for Library Collections and Technical Services Internet: RCC13@vms.cis.pitt.edu -- Marcia Tuttle Editor, NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES BITNET: TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET Thank you for the messages of support that you have sent in the past few days. You have confirmed that the decision to separate from ALCTS was the right one. Let me answer the questions you have asked me. Is the newsletter still being published? YES, the newsletter is still being published; you will notice very little change. Am I still a subscriber, or do I have to resubscribe? YES, you are still a subscriber; the mailing list is intact. Is the newsletter still free, or is there a subscription price? YES, the newsletter is still free of charge. Will the newsletter still be available on ALANET, DataLinx, etc.? YES, we still have the same distribution channels. Will the newsletter have ads now? NO, we are not accepting ads. We do have a new editorial board. Staying over from the Subcommittee on Serials Pricing Issues are Deana Astle (Clemson University), Jerry Curtis (Springer-Verlag New York) and Chuck Hamaker (Louisiana State University). The new members are James Mouw (University of Chicago) and Heather Steele (Blackwell's Periodicals Division). You will be hearing more from this editorial board in the near future. When I informed ALCTS that I wished to continue the newsletter inde- pendently, they made two requests: that I incorporate some break in numbering to signify the change and that I send the ALCTS Executive Director a copy of the BITNET-based mailing list. Had I known that ALCTS was going to use this list to subscribe all of you to a differ- ent publication without your consent (or mine), I would have tried to dissuade them. I could not have stopped them because the list is available to anyone, but I would certainly have protested. Please accept my apology for this intrusion. On a happier note, after following a fascinating discussion of copy- right (and copyleft), authors' rights, publisher value added, access to scholarly information, and more on HUMANIST, Christian Boissonnas and I felt that some of that list's subscribers might be interested in this newsletter and would bring a new dimension to our content. Chris- tian placed a notice for that group and immediately its members from all over the world began to subscribe. It is heartening to see that concern for the critically high price of access to scholarly informa- tion is not limited to librarians, publishers and subscription agents. Welcome! to the faculty members, graduate students and other research- ers from HUMANIST who have subscribed. I look forward to lively dis- cussions in this newsletter format. I'm having to break promises to some people; your contributions will be in the next issue, and I'll have it out very shortly. NS1.2 ARL TO PRODUCE DIRECTORY OF ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS Ann Okerson, Association of Research Libraries, BITNET: OKERSON@UMDC.BITNET. As part of its keen commitment to promote networked academic journals and other serials, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) plans to publish a directory of electronic journals, newsletters, and schol- arly discussion lists/interest groups. These represent publications which are created and distributed principally for BITNET, Internet, and any affiliated academic networks, largely for free. The directory will be available at the end of June. It will contain some 30 journal listings, about twice that number of newsletters, and over 1000 scholarly lists. Its length is anticipated to be close to 200 pages. Preliminary pricing estimates are approximately $10 - $12 to members and double that for non-members. A final price and release date will be advertised in early June. Editor of the journals/newsletters section is Michael Strangelove, University of Ottawa. Strangelove's list will be available via the Ottawa University network sometime in June. Editor of the scholarly discussion lists/interest groups section is Diane Kovacs, Kent State University Libraries. For some months, she has maintained such list- ings as adjunct files to networked lists such as HUMANIST, ARACHNET, Lstown, and Libref-L. Each electronic "serial" will be described, and clear directions about how to subscribe, send submissions, and access retrospectively will be provided. To ensure that the reader is given accurate and up-to-date information, entries have been supplied or verified by the editors themselves. The listings are compiled with the intention of providing the uninitiated networker with clear directions on how to navigate the sometimes puzzling world of electronic scholar- ship. ARL is producing the printed directory because of calls virtually daily requesting such information. If there is indeed sufficient de- mand for the work, the directories will be updated and sold regularly. For those who prefer to retrieve electronically, the directory will point to the free and continuously up-to-date networked sources for this information, with complete access instructions. The ARL is tentatively exploring options for funding to catalog/clas- sify these materials, both to facilitate networked and paper access by subject and to "institutionalize" and "legitimize" new types of "seri- als." This effort would relate to activities of the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) in identifying and maintaining directories of networked access and resources and to the work of individuals and institutions concerned with standards development for networked prod- ucts and publications. For further information, to indicate your in- terest, or to place an order, contact: ARLHQ@UMDC.BITNET Ann Okerson or Christine Klein Association of Research Libraries 1527 New Hampshire Avenue, NW Washington DC 20036 202-232-2466 (phone) 202-462-7849 (fax) NS1.3 RUSCHIN ON BEILSTEIN Siegfried Ruschin, Librarian for Collection Development, Linda Hall Library, 5109 Cherry St, Kansas City MO 64110-2498. I read the comments on the BEILSTEIN HANDBOOK OF ORGANIC CHEMISTRY that appeared in no. 37 of the NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES with great interest and with some dismay. Linda Hall Library has reluctantly dropped its subscription to BEIL- STEIN on two occasions, only to reinstate it each time at the first opportunity. This year again, we are not subscribing. The decision (or apparent vacillation) is based entirely on budgetary considerations: $25,000 is a big chunk out of most libraries' budget, and, given the relatively low use of the handbook, this expense is indeed hard to justify. But we do not find the sacrifice of a reference work of un- questionable high quality an easy decision. I am not familiar with the American Chemical Society's criteria for accreditation. But it is hard to see how any library could presume to offer full research facilities in chemistry without ready access to BEILSTEIN. Frequency of use is not to be ignored, but for a research library this cannot be the ultimate selection criterion. How often something is used, we will all agree, is not tantamount to "useful- for-the-price;" ready accessibility and reliability of the data are at least as significant in a reference work. It is quite possible and even likely for a knowledgeable and assiduous researcher to use BEILSTEIN, without being aware that no additional volumes have come for some time. Such an unawareness may say something and even be amusing, but it has no bearing on the value of the work. As an argument for cancellation it is irrelevant, if one keeps the organization and the purpose of BEILSTEIN in mind. BEILSTEIN is not a current, sequentially published index or abstract. It is a truly monu- mental retrospective bibliography and handbook of critically evaluated data. In this lie both its strength and glory and its weaknesses. I fully agree with Patricia O'Neill's brief, informed evaluation, and I share her concerns. Her comments about SANDRA and how it can greatly increase the usefulness of BEILSTEIN merits more than passing atten- tion. SANDRA is a remarkable software package that is as simple to use as it is powerful. It facilitates access not only to the wealth of verified data in BEILSTEIN, but also to large sections of the chemical literature beyond. As Patricia O'Neill also points out, BEILSTEIN-on- Line is not as easy a way out of the dilemma as it may seem. To her warning that the files are currently and temporarily incomplete, I would add that full and efficient searching of that enormous and mul- tifaceted database requires more skill and subject knowledge than most of us nonchemists could probably muster. Her final remark regarding some librarians' discomfort with the "big 3" reference works even in their printed form best summarizes the problem. It is regrettable that we find ourselves in the quandary of having to decide between cancelling a reference work of unquestionable quality or cancelling some overpriced journals that are momentarily used heav- ily, but of which we otherwise know little and whose permanent signif- icance one may question. We struggle with these questions and deplore that we do not have the wisdom to answer them unequivocally. But it would be ironic and hardly in keeping with our responsibility as li- brarians were we to derive a sense of satisfaction or success for having to forego one of the dependable and important reference sources in the sciences. NS1.4 SEVENTH INTERNATIONAL LEARNED JOURNALS SEMINAR, LONDON, 5 APRIL 1991: "PUBLISHERS: WHO NEEDS THEM?" Kenneth Kirkland, DePaul University, LIBKLK@DEPAUL.BITNET. Edwin Shelock of Turpin Transactions noted in his introduction that the seminars were started to let Americans come over and talk about high prices. Sadly, only about five Americans made it to the Seventh. 1. Peter J. Farago, Editor of CHEMISTRY IN BRITAIN, wittily presented observations on "Editing: Good and Bad, Necessary or Not." He sees the purpose of an editor to be "grit in your oyster" and to avoid famous atomic typos such as "Unclear Physics." Portentously, a "typographical infelicity" occurred in spelling his surname with two "r"s in the program. "Editors are the waiters and bellboys" of the scientific publishing world. Although most articles are acceptable, their real role is to advance the interests of the author. There is no need to edit any "truly scientific" paper. In the U.K. placing referees' names on articles could "cause instant death," but if one makes a fool of himself/herself, why not let it be public? Can't have editors who are experts in all disciplines, or even of every aspect of one discipline. The editor manipulates the referee, and vice versa, but the referee has the expert knowledge. The whole publishing process is slowed down by editing. Copy editing is a humdrum, low paid profession that requires very intense concen- tration. One does not have to be a subject specialist, but does need "patience of the devil and somewhat small-minded creativeness." The best example of an editor with a good sense of what should be published is the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN's first 30 years after the War. If a journal starts well, it will attract papers of good quality. The bad part is that an editor can be too powerful and may be ejected only if the publication is ruined very badly. Although having too many papers can destroy the quality of a journal, historically, the excel- lence of a journal is "accidental." Microcomputer technology makes the relative cost of publication less. Act III is electronic storage, with paper copies only if you want. This will change dramatically the way editing is done. 2. Jane Smith of the BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL in "Peer Review: The Vital Ingredient" disagreed with the previous speaker, maintaining that the editor SHOULD make a difference. American librarians may say to drop peer review if it is so costly, that it doesn't work anyhow -- there have been scandals, conflicting papers. What editors offer be- yond BBSs etc., they have provided since the 17th century. The purpose of peer review is to guard against plagiarism. While the idea of the strong editor without peer review has had a long tradition, peer re- view has been a force since the close of World War II. Among other things, peer review works to prevent the publication of bad works, and improves the language of presentation. An editor asks if the question is important, original, and scientific- ally sound and needs experts for determining this, especially in the scientific realm. Getting it right is more important than getting it fast. Anyway, eighty-five percent of rejected papers get published somewhere else. The BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL is something of a hybrid, in that it main- tains a news section as well as scientific articles. So, it is both magazine and journal. The rejection rate of articles delivered is ninety percent. Fifty percent are rejected on first reading, before peer review. After peer review, the board of editors makes the final selections. Statistics referees are very important now, especially in talking about drugs, for example. In perhaps five of 45 papers submitted the statistics will be accurate, but by time of publication 38 more will be fine after review. An example of publishers' bias could mean that for news relevance, "sexy" = "negative." There may be a tendency for authors not to write up negative results, but just to bury them. There may be a need for an electronic database of negative results. Smith concluded with the thought that if the day comes -- and it will -- when the author types articles directly into an electronic database and the buyer purchases single articles only, that buyer will want to know that she/he is not buying a pig in a poke. Librarians may live to regret the idea of dumping paper journal publication and peer review. 3. Fred Friend, of University College London, presented "A Librarian's View of the Future of Scholarly Communication." Librarians cannot ignore publishers' concerns, publishers cannot ignore librarians' concerns, nor can either ignore the concerns of producers. University College, London, is on the cutting edge of research. Users love the library, would be up in arms if it were closing down, but they don't pay attention to the minutiae of administration. They are just interested in getting what they need, no matter how. Why worry? Because of fundamental weaknesses not apparent on the surface. If these weaknesses are not addressed, publications will turn to alter- nate methods, i.e. electronic bulletin boards. The major fault line lies in scholarly communication. Time lag is an underlying weakness in the information chain. Speed of publication and the speed of libraries in making articles available are problems. The pressure is on in the academic world to publish, and fast. The cold fusion affair is an extreme example. The pricing mechanism is another problem. "Certain unscrupulous pub- lishers" extort from academic libraries at an inflation rate higher than average for the national economy. The producer of information has no influence on cost, but the purchaser has some -- can cancel. If producers depended on INCOME or SPEED OF PUBLICATION, they would then be in a position to influence cost. Eventually, cost will have to be dealt with. There may be lower production costs if data is transmitted electronically. Prestige is the one criterion now lacking in electronic publication in academia. Electronic publishing clearly meets the standards for in- creased speed and economy. "I am surprised that publishers are so slow" to move to electronic publication. Single article publication will be a trend. There will be pressure to delete papers from a database that are not demanded for a specified period, due to reluctance to pay for storage for the rarely or never used. How would the user react to electronic publication? Speed, price, and ease of use are important. "Most academic reading today is of photo- copies," so electronic publication provides for this. In the Third World computers are no cheaper or more difficult to come by than paper journals. "Electronic publication makes everything easier and cheaper for everyone." Fast delivery everywhere is within our grasp. Friend hopes that librarians will still be needed as intermediaries, for retrieval skills, but there may be MORE COMPETITION. If librarians price their services too highly, they may be replaced by a retrieval software program. 4. David Penfold, Edgerton Publishing Services, spoke on "The Right Medium for the Task." What is the task? Communicating the results of research to a community. How to do it depends on the kind of informa- tion. Are exotic languages or character sets employed? Timeliness of the information is relevant. What the media are: 1) Print on paper; 2) Microform ("I put this in mainly for historical reasons."); 3) Machine-readable form in remova- ble (and therefore salable) form: magnetic material (disks or tapes), optical material (cd rom), or online. McLuhan observed that "The medium is the message" because it is the medium that shapes and controls the search and form of human associa- tions and actions. What is the publisher's role? "The medium is the massage," since the publisher is needed to provided added value: 1) refereeing (agrees with Jane Smith's emphasis on this point); 2) the editing process; 3) the formatting process. This is MORE important in electronic publish- ing. An editor does this presentation better than the author, deter- mining how to present tables, for instance. Typesetters: who needs them? Good ones add a lot of value. On production formatting: with paper the technology is familiar, par- ticularly for the user. Complex material needs complex formats with participation of typesetters, authors, and publishers. With cd-rom, the technology is NOT so familiar, particularly for the user, and is especially less accessible in the Third World. Techniques are not fully developed for mathematics and chemistry, font problems for such things as manuscripts, illustrations. With online databases, there can be communications problems, and "speed costs." Format problems are the same as for disks, maybe worse. Access is a problem. Who accesses? The librarian? Is special software needed, e.g. for chemistry or mathematics? Is special hardware needed, for half-tone reproduction, etc.? It should be noted that traditional publishers absorb many costs that in electronic publishing are more likely to be passed on to the end user. With electronic mail/bulletin boards there is no control, transfer through PostScript, etc. is not automatic and has to be encoded. Is this really "publishing"? "Who pays and how?" (Penfold observed that he had posed questions, if not answers.) 5. In the question-and-answer period before lunch, there was much interchange: What publishers and librarians have in common: threats that the future is bleak, and although you've had a jolly good time in the past, other people will take over. Information is not merely a commodity passed down the chain. "The vast majority of what is published is never read, so why all this bother with quality control?" On quantity and quality: is one article worth the number of cop- ies of an issue distributed? By rule of thumb a good monograph purchased is likely to be circulated within 18 months. There is a twelve-to-one chance against a periodical article ever being read at all. "Safety and security of peoples' lives are the most im- portant -- therefore we must try to disengage." Journal usage drops dramatically after five years (in the sciences). "There is far too much redundancy." Electronic publishing may make this worse: ever more quantity and less quality. Data available now on the usage of articles is not very good. Newspapers -- who reads every word? Who wants it a week later? Bad publication will continue and increase ("this has certainly been true of newspapers in my lifetime.") What happens to the minority press? In e-mail messages already there are pleas for software to sort out the good stuff from the overload of data being transmitted. The academic community is where the pressure comes from. It is self-contradictory. "A journal is not to be read, but to be published in." 6. Hany Tolba, Manager of the "Al-Ahram" Distribution Agency, and manager of the "Al-Ahram" Scientific Library, among other posts, pre- sented "Spreading the Word: An International View." Tolba predicts continued growth of information services based on the new technology. Twenty years hence there will be wide use of on-line databases at home and office. Technological changes may be more influ- ential than production changes. There are some twenty Egyptian universities with many thousands of students. The Egyptian government increased the national education budget by twenty per cent two years ago. Paper costs are a very high percentage of publication costs in the Middle East. Egypt is taking stern measures against piracy. Egyptian libraries try to avoid the tremendous cost of CHEMICAL ABSTRACTS in paper format by subscribing only to microfiche. Although there is access to electronic databases, reliance is still largely on paper publications. Tolba feels that electronic publications should be available at rates comparable to paper in the Third World, but senses that paper publications will continued to be predominant. 7. Harry Hanham, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lancaster, dis- cussed "Spreading The Word: The Best And Can We Afford It?" In the U.K. enrollment in the sciences continues to fall, while en- rollment overall is flat. Enrollment is declining at the research level, though the total number of students is steady. Exploration and cultivation go hand in hand. In the 17th and 18th centuries scientists led the lives of a Bedouin tribe, not cultivating a particular patch. The scientist is still a browser, if any good, but specialization is a very strong force now. New buildings at the Uni- versity of California no longer have rooms for large collections of offprints, periodicals, etc., as opposed to the 1960s. Four years is the longest time-span of interest for a scientific pub- lication. The scientist is a team member, each player concentrating on a narrowly defined field. The team members are in contact with each other all the time. Publication is archival -- AFTER THE EVENT. E-mail is taking over to some extent. Researchers never look at the Proceedings of a Conference. Such proceedings are there for new peo- ple, who weren't at the conference, bringing themselves up to speed. Scientists do not read scientific periodicals at home, unless they are readers by temperament, and most scientists are not. The researcher is now told to cultivate a small unexplored patch that may not be of interest outside of the "village." Publishers are doing a good job of serving these cultivators. Who should pay for these narrow fields? Each university will have its own mix of particular cultivators. Still, there must be journals of exploration as well. In the Social Sciences and the Humanities, the library must serve primarily the student, different circumstances from the Sciences. University allocations for research have fallen drastically. This means money for research should go to research councils rather than to university. The government proposes that research must be separated from teaching budgets, and this applies equally to libraries. It has been decided on high that universities and polytechnics will divide teaching from research in the same way. The sorting out period will last five years or so. "Cultivators should provide for their own pub- lication." Letting the cultivators look after themselves has gone a long way already. Dreary, dull journals need not be widely available. Boston Spa works! The use of publications is to score brownie points, i.e., considera- tions political and commercial. You can't be funded if you don't have a long list of publications. "Sensible people worry about quality rather than quantity." One must have fertilizer from outside the community. 8. Douglas Shepherd of Pergamon Press gave the last paper, on "Pub- lishers: The Critical Link." (The speaker originally scheduled was "trapped in America" at this juncture). Shepherd announced he would be communicating remarks, some bitter, about the crisis in the scientific information world. Journals refuse to die whether read or not. Scholarly journals are no longer needed. A large number of journals are not cited at all in five years. Scien- tific literature is doubling every fifteen to seventeen years, so it is hard to keep up. There are two schools of thought about the information overload. 1. The Reductionist (need fewer publications) 2. The Expediters (looking for ways to cope) "At Pergamon we have around 400 titles," not all of them pretty. TETRAHEDRON LETTERS has become the newsletter of its field. Circula- tion has increased despite increased subscription prices. It was the first to use camera ready publication, and now accepts faxed submis- sion of articles to speed up the process. The electronic alternative: we must give heed. Computer technology has been tried experimentally with TETRAHEDRON LETTERS, issued both in print and on disk. An electronic bulletin board has been added but has NOT been successful and will cease. CANCER NEWS, however, has found the bbs to be well received but is also still printed. Paper technolo- gy is not completely out of mode yet. 9. Wrap-up: With some equivocation, one could observe that Russell and Whitehead preceded McLuhan, as did Omar Khayyam. Redundancy is waste- ful, but have we considered the costs of reduction, replacement, and delivery? Electronic publication has not coped fully yet with the problems of half-tone, illustrations, mathematical and chemical sym- bols. There is electronic access in Egypt, but the simpler paper form is still needed. Piracy is a very good indication of need for the traditional. It is difficult to summarize, but we are beginning to confront serious matters. 10. Audience reactions: Scholarly publishing as a cultural activity has not been consid- ered. Was there a cost benefit analysis on painting the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo? Gillian Page pondered if anyone else remembered the Loughborough study that found printed articles cost about L1 even after the acquisitions and cataloging costs are considered. There is no cheaper way. Has scientific information REALLY Doubled in 15/17 years?? The comparison of electronic publication in TETRAHEDRON LETTERS is not valid, not comparing like with like. It is a fallacy to think electronic publishing is going to be cheaper. Paper publication has subsidized the electronic publica- tion. NS1.5 DARTMOUTH'S INTERNAL ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER Susan George, Physical Sciences Librarian, Dartmouth College, SUSAN.C.GEORGE@MAC.DARTMOUTH.EDU. Kresge and Cook Libraries News is a bi-weekly newsletter published both electronically and in paper copy. It is now up to volume 7 and we began sending electronic copies to subscribers last year, simply be- cause a few requested delivery that way. We recently queried the sub- scribers (about 150) and told them we could and would deliver an elec- tronic version if they were interested; our paper copy count is now down to 95! The newsletter contains the following sections: *front page: a directory of staff and services, a table of con- tents for the inside pages, and often special notices (library schedule of hours, holiday closings, etc.) *NEWS NOTES: these can be anything from a new database accessible through our online system, to a new commercial database, to a guest article (we recently had the Government Documents librarian explain 'depository' to our readers), to the DIALOG-ACS battle, to reprints (with permission) from Marcia's newsletter. *RECENT ACQUISITIONS: a listing of new titles received by both the Math and Physical Sciences libraries. These are subject di- vided first by broad headings (Chemistry, Astronomy, Mathematics, Computer Science, Reference, Science, Physics, Meteorology, Earth Sciences). Then the titles are further divided by LCSH and are finally listed alphabetically by title. Here we also include selected government documents from GPO (when the list comes over). *PUBLICATIONS BY PHYS-SCI & MATH RESEARCHERS: an alphabetic list- ing (by author) of faculty/graduate student publications (journal article, conference papaers, books, book chapters, etc.). This is derived from SDIs on various commercial databases (GEOREF, CA, PHYS, INSPEC, etc.) Issue Preparation: I check each newly arrived title to determine if it should be listed in the newsletter (and therefore displayed). Since the Math library (which I also administer) is physically separate from Kresge, the assistant there forwards the 'travelling slips' to me. I then come up with an LCSH by calling up the record on our automated circulation system (UNICORN, by SIRSI). Since serials are not yet in the circulation system, my subject heading fall-back is the online system (the CATALOG), which, using the technical display, gives me subject treatment. (I keep an electronic thesaurus of all the subject headings I use, so I can maintain authority control). I create the newsletter using WORD4. The font is Avant Garde (since it laser-prints so nicely). After I have proofed the completed issue, it gets exported to a WORD3 document and then into PageMaker(because our version of PageMaker cannot deal with WORD4 documents). We also add some graphics for each broad subject heading (e.g., a Mac for the subject heading COMPUTER SCIENCE, etc.). We laser print the master (for paper copy distribution). Then, finally, comes the mailing. For the paper copies, we use a programmed photocopier to run double-sided pages. This means that we use less paper and because we can 'fold' the newsletter, the whole issue is totally recyclable. The electronic version is sent as a WORD4 document (minus the fancy graphics). We 'run' the newsletter every other Friday, the electronic copies get sent that same day, the paper copies get run and mailed the next day (Saturday). Production time/costs: It takes me about 8 hours to put the WORD4 document together for each issue. It takes my assistant about 1 hour to go from WORD4 to WORD3 to PageMaker to a laser-printed master. (That's because we have a template from which we develop each issue, so the generation time for each issue is decreased). It takes zero to send electronically because we have put together a mailing list of subscribers and the document (text-format) is sent so quickly, it's right before your very eyes that it disappears. It takes about 1 hour on Saturday to copy, fold, address and mail the 95 paper copies (if the photocopiers cooperate). I have never done a detailed cost survey and probably should since we have moved into electronic mailing so much more heavily. But, I'd guess it's relatively cheap, less expensive than when we started with volume 1! If you have any questions, please contact me. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Readers of the NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES are encouraged to share the information in the newsletter by electronic or paper meth- ods. We would appreciate credit if you quote from the newsletter. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES (ISSN: 1046-3410) is pub- lished by the editor as news is available. Editor: Marcia Tuttle, BITNET: TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET; Faxon's DataLinx: TUTTLE; Paper mail: Seri- als Department, C.B. #3938 Davis Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC 27599-3938; Telephone: 919 962-1067; FAX: 919 962-0484. Editorial Board: Deana Astle (Clemson University), Jerry Curtis (Springer Verlag New York), Charles Hamaker (Louisiana State University), James Mouw (University of Chicago), and Heather Steele (Blackwell's Periodicals Division). The Newsletter is available on BITNET, DataLinx, and ALANET. EBSCO and Readmore Academic customers may receive the Newsletter in paper format from EBSCO and Readmore, respectively. Back issues of the Newsletter are available electronic- ally free of charge through BITNET from the editor. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ******ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE*******