Hustler Magazine Challenge, Week 2

[Nick Arnett]

At 06:57 PM 9/1/97 -0700, Filtering Facts wrote:

>Several people complained that a free subscription wasn't really free, since
>it costs money to process and circulate a magazine for a year.  Fine, I'll
>remove that barrier too.  In addition to a free subscription to Huslter for
>one year, the library that claims the free subscription will also get a
>check from Filtering Facts for $100 to cover the processing costs.  In fact,
>that will more than cover the processing costs, the library that claims the
>prize will actually be making money!  No way you can claim "only for
>economic reasons we do not subscribe to Hustler" now.

This is not so.  They can claim a perfectly rational economic justification
-- they have better things to do.  "Opportunity costs" are real costs, which
you can't remove until you pay for *everything* that a library considers
more important than putting Hustler on its shelves.  I take it for granted
that they don't think it's important.

Whether or not we all agree on filtering, I think we do agree that
librarians are entrusted by the public to use their time and other resources
responsibly.  Going along with this straw man offer would be a waste of time
for just about any librarian.

Nick

Product Manager, Advanced Technology
Verity Inc. -- Connecting People with Information

Phone: 408-542-2164     Fax: 408-541-1600
Home office: 408-733-7613         narnett at verity.com
http://www.verity.com