[WEB4LIB] RE: Article - "Post-Tasini: Pity the Librarians"

[Dan Lester]

Friday, June 29, 2001, 9:15:29 AM, you wrote:

IFR> One group that'll be disadvantaged by the loss of articles by freelancers:
IFR> distance learners. Online fulltext databases are a real boon for distance
IFR> learners. Delivering copies of articles to remote users.. the process
IFR> takes more labor, more expense, and - more importantly from the user's
IFR> poitn of view - more time.

Yes, there will be some disadvantage to distance learners.  For those
distant students who have access to LN, it could be a problem, and to
those with a few other databases.  However, it will become less and
less of a problem as the years pass, as the older material becomes
less important.  It is clear that essentially NO material since 1995
will be affected, as any publisher whose material you'd ever care
about has had contracts covering "reprints by electronic means using
all current means and all means yet to be invented" or some such. I
know I've signed several of those, the first being in about 1993, as
near as I can recall.

Also, we must remember that for a great many students, and
particularly undergraduate distance students, the fact that a given
article is missing is not the end of a world.  If you're doing a paper
on abortion, or any other common topic, article B will usually do just
as well as article A.  And then there are all the students who'll buy
the paper on the web anyway.....

I agree that the authors won't see much for this, except perhaps for a
few very high profile authors who'll be able to negotiate some fee for
their electronic work.  In fact, it is ironic that it may be a classic
case of cutting off their noses to spite their faces. They won't see
money and will just get less exposure to their work, which may hurt
them financially in the long run.  NOTE: this does NOT mean that I
don't think they should get paid.  They should.  However, if you're
not going to get the money anyway, why go after it? It seems much like
suing someone who crashed into you, totalling your car and injuring
you.  If the guy doesn't have any money and not much of a job,
collecting anything beyond what his insurance company will pay is
pretty meaningless.  The pittance you could eventually get from
garnishing his wages won't begin to pay the legal fees.

cheers

dan

-- 
Dan Lester, Data Wrangler  dan at RiverOfData.com
3577 East Pecan, Boise, Idaho  83716-7115 USA
www.riverofdata.com  www.gailndan.com  Stop Global Whining!