economics of internet access

[Laura Quilter]

sorry, tired people.

On Thu, 10 Jul 1997, Burt, David wrote:

> Laura Quilter wrote:
> >Once again, we can ration the
> >access points (restricting hours available on the machines), or we can
> >ration by content.  Unfortunately, in this case, rationing by content
> is
> >not going to solve the problem -- of not enough access points.  To
> solve
> >the problem of not enough access points we would still have to ration
> >access to the machines -- and, in fact, that is the only step required
> to
> >solve the problem of not enough access points.  Other steps -- such as
> >content restriction -- are unnecessary add-ons.
> 
> So why isn't content restiction of books an "unnecerary add-on".
	Restriction of book-purchases by content isn't an "unnecessary
add-on" because it is the better of two choices, both of which solve the
problem (of not enough shelf-space, cataloging time, etc.).  Restriction
of Internet-access by content *is* an "unnecessary add-on" because it does
NOT solve the problem alone -- it *must* be paired with terminal-access
restrictions.  But the terminal-access restrictions could be done by
themselves and WOULD solve the problem.  (The problem, may I remind you,
is distribution of access to internet terminals.)

> Resource allocation by content certainly doesn't solve the problem of
> book scarity either.  (Although, I have seen some "give them only the
> good stuff" collections that seemed to approach this "solution" ;-> )

Well, we would always like MORE money to buy MORE books and journals, but
evaluating library resources based on print-content does in fact work
perfectly adequately for hard-copy collections, as far as I'm aware. 
Granted, some organizations (Hawaii) might prefer to not do even that for
themselves, but I'm not aware of any viable alternatives.  I don't think
that buying books by the pound has been considered seriously.

> It seems like this particular thread has ended up as "allocation by
> content is/is not a good way to ration scarce resources", and let's just
> say that's a matter more of philosophy than anything, and we agree to
> disagree.

I think you are just not understanding the point.  I'm utterly convinced
that if you only understood the facts, you would see everything my way.
<grin>

> 
>  ***********************************************************
>           David Burt, Information Technology Librarian 
>           The Lake Oswego Public Library 
>           706 Fourth Street, Lake Oswego, OR 97034
>           URL:          http://www.ci.oswego.or.us/library/library.htm
>           Phone:     (503) 675-2537 
>           Fax:           (503) 635-4171 
>           E-mail:      dburt at ci.oswego.or.us
> 

Laura Quilter / lauramd at uic.edu
Electronic Services Librarian
University of Illinois at Chicago