[WEB4LIB] AAP and librarians article

[Roy Tennant]

Just like us, publishers are too busy tripping over the track to see 
the train that will run them over. They fear libraries for the wrong 
reason, and they don't fear the public enough.

First libraries. Libraries are actually bastions of conservatism when 
it comes to the law. Librarians fall all over themselves trying to 
adhere to copyright law. I can't begin to tell you how many times 
librarians have asked me about copyright issues with fear in their 
eyes -- fear that they might somehow inadvertently do something that 
would get them or their institution hauled into court. We're all a 
bunch of ninnies.

What publishers *should* fear us for is stealing their business right 
out from under them. In academe, we have the goods - the faculty who 
write and publish. If we can get our act together and start retaining 
this output in the university by publishing it ourselves (online, for 
free), the commercial publisher has been cut out of the equation. Is 
this happening? You bet it is. Will it grow to the point of putting 
Elsevier out of business? Who knows. But if I were them, *that's* 
what I would fear about libraries.

Now for the public. We all saw what happened with Napster. Do 
publishers honestly think they are immune from this? The problem here 
is so patently obvious I don't want to waste anyone's time explaining 
it.

So yes, publishers should be running scared - very scared. But first 
they should figure out what they should be running from.
Roy Tennant

>There is a very interesting article about Pat Schroeder, the American Assn
>of Publishers, and librarians in today's (2/7) Washington Post:
>
>http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36584-2001Feb7.html
>
>____________________________________
>Barbara G. Smith,  Technology Officer
>Institute of Museum and Library Services
>1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Room 802
>Washington, DC 20506
>
>voice:    202/606-5254
>fax:       202/606-1077
>e-mail:  bsmith at imls.gov
>on the Web:  www.imls.gov