ISSN: 1046-3410 NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES NUMBER NS 24 -- April 6, 1992 Editor: Marcia Tuttle CONTENTS NS24.1 FROM THE EDITOR, Marcia Tuttle NS24.2 AQUEDUCT ACTION AGENDA NS24.1 FROM THE EDITOR Marcia Tuttle, TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET. Printed below is the action agenda formulated at a February retreat by nineteen librarians concerned with serials pricing and access. It is the subject of an article in the April 8 CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION (pp. 33- 34). Because the article does not give the entire agenda, we want to make it available quickly to interested persons and groups. I will be happy to consider for publication in the newsletter your response, be it comment, criticism, elaboration, or any other reaction. NS24.2 AQUEDUCT ACTION AGENDA INTRODUCTION From February 7-9, 1992, nineteen serials, acquisitions, and collection development librarians met in Chapel Hill, North Carolina for a retreat at the Aqueduct Conference Center. They discussed pressing issues in regard to serials acquisition and scholarly communication. Participants in the re- treat came from ten states and the District of Columbia. After fifteen hours of intense discussion on five topics (strategies for counteracting high prices, the library's role in document delivery, library treatment of electronic journals, serials cancellation projects, and copy- right), the retreat participants developed the following action agenda. The points are directed to individual librarians and their libraries, and to library organizations. The issues must be addressed at a grassroots level, as well as by organizations. ACTION AGENDA The Aqueduct participants urge all librarians to discuss, adopt, and pro- mulgate the points in this Action Agenda. 1) Examine carefully all of the implications and ramifications of the access versus ownership debate. Access and ownership are both critical library functions. While access has many advantages, a critical mass of library ownership must be maintained as ownership is the ultimate form of access. 2) Article delivery services using research libraries' journal collections are becoming highly effective. If libraries are to maintain a competitive role in information and article delivery they must enhance technical and human resources to speed and improve interlibrary access. Likewise, librar- ies relying on article delivery from other libraries must accept the costs incurred by the supplying library in providing access. 3) Standards, strategies, costs, and responsibilities for archiving elec- tronic journals are uncertain. Librarians should respond to this opportuni- ty by working with publishers and computer centers to create standards and cost-effective strategies, and to determine libraries' role in storing, accessing, and archiving electronic journals. 4) Donald Koepp, Director of Libraries at Princeton University, targetted Pergamon Press journals for cancellation because of inordinately high price increases on top of already high prices. His action is an example of fo- cused cancellations intended to send a message to publishers. Librarians should share the Koepp letter with library users and pursue additional measures of focusing attention on the expensive prices of some publishers. 5) In selection and cancellation decisions, openly acknowledge journal price and price history as significant criteria. 6) Notify journal editors and publishers directly of reasons for cancel- ling journal titles. 7) Share cancellation lists and criteria for cancellation within a consor- tium or region in order to promote cooperative collection development. 8) Research articles produced by federal employees as a consequence of their employment are exempt from copyright. Likewise, librarians and li- brary organizations should seek regulations which prohibit copyright of written reports of all publicly funded research. 9) Encourage authors to retain the rights to their written work for their own use, for teaching, and for use by their libraries and institutions. 10) Engage library users in a continuing dialog about the issues associa- ted with serials pricing. Among these issues is the wide disparity between individual and institutional prices. Devise strategies for identifying excessive institutional journal prices and seek user support in eliminating these journals from our collections. 11) Encourage authors and editors to consider price-competetive publishers for dissemination of their research. 12) Inform subscription agents that firm prices must be distinguished from preliminary prices on all invoices. Further, inform vendors that additional billings will not be accepted on titles where previous billings indicated firm prices. 13) Analyze subscription invoices carefully and verify the accuracy of vendor service charges. 14) The Aqueduct group will compile and produce a benchmark list of 100 journal titles for comparison of prices paid to various subscription agents and directly to the publishers. AQUEDUCT PARTICIPANTS Astle, Deana - Clemson University Boissonnas, Christian - Cornell University Crump, Michele - University of Florida Early, Caroline - National Agricultural Library Farkas, Doina - University of Florida Freeman, Suzanne - Virginia Commonwealth University Hamaker, Chuck - Louisiana State University Hepfer, Cindy - SUNY - Buffalo Health Sciences Center Ivins, October - Louisiana State University Jones, Danny - University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio Lonberger, Jana - Georgia Tech McLaren, Mary - University of Kentucky Martin, Sylvia - Vanderbilt University Mouw, Jim - University of Chicago Murden, Steve - Virginia Commonwealth University O'Neill, Ann - University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Information/Library Science Okerson, Ann - Association of Research Libraries Robnett, Bill - Vanderbilt University Tuttle, Marcia - University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Readers of the NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES are encouraged to share the information in the newsletter by electronic or paper methods. We would appreciate credit if you quote from the newsletter. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES (ISSN: 1046-3410) is published as news is available by Marcia Tuttle, BITNET: TUTTLE@UNC.BITNET; telephone: 919 962-1067; FAX: 919 962-0484. Paper mail: Serials Department, C.B. #3938 Davis Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC 27599-3938. Editorial board: Deana Astle (Clemson University), Jerry Curtis (Springer-Verlag New York), Chuck Hamaker (Louisiana State University), Jim Mouw (University of Chicago), and Heather Steele (Blackwell's Periodicals Division). The Newsletter is available on BITNET/Internet. EBSCO and Read- more Academic customers may receive the Newsletter in paper format from EBSCO and Readmore, respectively. Back issues of the Newsletter are availa- ble electronically free of charge through BITNET from the editor. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ *********ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE***ENDOFFILE*********