Recently several lists saw some discussion about the disadvantages which
"unaffiliated" researchers face when trying to access "affiliated" databases
- like Avery Architectural Library's "Avery Index to Architectural
Periodicals".

The Avery index, as many of you know, was started over fifty years ago as a
typical in-house card file, but has, in the last 20 years, been massaged into
a "licensed property", with rather expensive access fees -- although no more
expensive than the  fees which other databases require.  (I purchased a copy
three years ago for $1000.00; it is also available for lease through RLG for
much larger sums, which is how most people access it, through an RLG-licensed
library.  These provide on-line, off-site access to their staff and faculty,
but not to "outsiders".)

Some back and forth discussion on this matter with several people, including
Angela Giral, Director of Avery Architectural Library, made me step back and
think a bit. Below is a memo (slightly revised) which I sent to Angela, along
with her response, following.       ---Christopher Gray

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From: [log in to unmask] (Christopher Gray)

The memo about developing wider, easier access for the Avery Architectural
Index is, properly, full of talk of licenses and fees and rights. But, wait a
minute: in the 1960's, when Neville Thompson (and her many predecessors) were
still hand typing Avery Index cards in triplicate, Avery was not really,
charging for its index. It got a modest dollar boost from G. K. Hall's bound,
multi-volume edition of its index, but the organizing principle in the
indexing effort was to distibute it's information as widely as possible - it
didn't occur to anyone that it was a "product".

In the last two decades we have seen a new, contrary paradigm emerge: Avery
is part of a system which now "controls" the "rights" to the Avery Index, and
reserves the right to "license" it, charging "fees". Somehow, instead of
doing it's best to open the door to get the information out, the library is
adding more locks. So, as the technology has arrived to really, really
distribute this information widely, the turnstiles have gone in: index =
revenue stream. How far away that is from the origins of the Avery
Architectural Index?

Crazy world, ain't it?

Christopher Gray

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From:   [log in to unmask] (Angela Giral)

We are still not charging for consulting the Avery Index if you come to Avery
Library, just as in the days when Neville Thompson was typing cards. When
G.K. Hall published the cards in book form you could take it home...but you
had to pay for it.

Angela