AAP and librarians article

[Leo Robert Klein]

On Wed, 7 Feb 2001, Roy Tennant wrote:

>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.

This is what I'd hope but if you look at the hoopla, much of it inane,
surrounding such entities as netLibrary whose title list consists primarily
of college press, it really looks like we're doing business with ourselves
and paying a tax to the publisher at the same time.  And sure, that's how
things were done back in the old days but that it should continue now is an
absolute shame.  The way things look, we may soon be unable to afford the
products of our own institutions -- either that or we'll be unable to offer
them to our patrons in meaningful ways.  O Brave New Digital World.

LEO

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