Important issue in a variety of settings. Our library is in the process of
canceling print subscriptions to journals to which we have electronic
access, i.e. full text databases. It's a matter of money. Even if we had a
State budget, it has been decades since our acquisitions budget has kept
pace with inflation. And this doesn't even begin to address the increase in
the rate at which new knowledge/information continues to be created.

So, we have tough choices to make. Since our students prefer full text on
their desktop (computer), that's the direction we're going. I have taken it
upon myself to be an alarmist. I worry about what happens when we no longer
have access/subscribe. If a print subscription lapses, you still own the
backfiles (previously purchased issues). I'm suggesting that libraries need
to pressure vendors to include in their contracts the right for a
subscriber to make a single (CD or other electronic storage medium)
preservation copy. In my mind its not 'if' that copy will ever be needed,
but when.

Of course, this all assumes that the storage medium will survive as well as
the means to decode it.

Wayne Miller
Plattsburgh State U of NY

[log in to unmask] writes:

> Last month the Gale Group/PSIMedia notified me that they would no longer
> support their subscription-based "City Directories Online".  This digitized
> collection of city directories, although not as well processed as those on
> Ancestry.com, was notable for its scope.  (For those who not familiar with
> digitized city directories, they permit the researcher to sort directory
> entries by keyword: "stable", "West 11th", "Jones" or "stable", for example.)
>  The Gale letter made no mention of transfer of the source to a non-profit
> operator.
>
> Although the non-commercial online resources - like the Library of Congress'
> "American Memory" - seem perfectly secure, everytime I use subscription
> services like Poole's Plus, Ancestry.com and Historic Newspapers Online, I
> wonder about their profitability.
>
> Christopher Gray
> "Streetscapes" Columnist, Sunday Real Estate Section
> The New York Times
> office:  246 West 80th Street
> New York City   10024
> voice:  212-799-0520
> fax:     212-799-0542
> e:        [log in to unmask]