[WEB4LIB] Re: Coughing up Coffman / cost of ILL

[Dan Robinson Indexing Services]

Coming in from the vendor side (but not sales and  marketing), I'd 
like to say that pricing electronic products has always been a 
problem.  Paper indexes are easy. You can easily measure reams of 
paper and bookcovers.  How do you measure electrons?   (and how do 
you know that the electron that you measured is the one that you 
wanted? <grin>).

While the work that goes into an electronic product is the same as 
what is needed for a paper product up to a point, in many ways there 
is actually more work involved on the electronic side than on the 
paper side.  


Dan Robinson
Indexing Services
H.W. Wilson Company
Bronx, NY
drobinson at hwwilson.com

On 26 Aug 99 at 6:50, Kim Lord wrote:

> Hi again,
> 
> In the public library realm of this question, I really wonder sometimes
> about pricing on a lot of the materials that we purchase.  I don't mean
> just the cost of the average book going up but some of the database and
> subscription fees are just outrageous.  What has me suspicious is that
> occasionally after I tell a salesperson that their particular product, no
> matter how great it may be, is just too expensive and we will look
> elsewhere, the following year they come back with the same product at a
> reduced price.  The question of why was it so expensive before is never
> quite answered but there have been times the response that I have gotten
> back has been....company policy has been to revisit our pricing
> structure...or some such nonsense.  
...........
> 
> I'm getting off the soapbox now.....
> 
> 
> Kim Lord
> Kent Memorial Library
> Suffield CT.
> 
> 
>