Verbal comments to slide presentation.

1
Verbal comments to slide presentation. The
slides contain (a) tables comparing what the
University of Chicago pays for JACM,
SICOMP, and JCSS, and the page numbers
published (b) excerpts from the Cornell Senate
Resolution of Dec 17, 2003. The full text of
the Cornell Resolution can be found at
http//www.library.cornell.edu/scholarlycomm/resol
ution.html and was distributed at the
meeting.
2
I made the following comments during the slide
presentation. Regarding part (a), to compare
prices, I used one of Don Knuth's measures, the
cost per 10,000 characters. I calculated these
numbers based on the following sources -
subscription fee and page number data received
from the chief librarian of the University
of Chicago math, stat CS library
- my estimate of the number of characters per
page in each of the three journals - the
published membership fees of ACM and SICOMP.
3
I calculated the cost of subscription by an
individual to JACM and SICOMP as the sum of the
member subscription fee plus the society's
membership fee. The figures represent paper
subscription rates only. The main reason is that
the fee for electronic access can change
radically overnight. According to our
librarian, the institutional subscription rate
for SICOMP cannot be established because of
bundling. Therefore I used a wild guess which
appears to greatly overestimate the cost if the
institution subscribes to 3 or more SIAM
journals.
Next come the tables shown at the business
meeting.
4
2003 individual subscriptions
2003 institutional subscriptions
5
pages published
6
Other libraries might come up with somewhat
different figures - pricing is no longer uniform
but I doubt anyone will find a library which will
not support Cornell's conclusion that at
Elsevier's rates, the library operation is not
sustainable.
7
Regarding item (b), I pointed out that that
senats of ivy league schools are not known to be
gatherings of revolutionary hotheads, so the very
strong language used in the Cornell resolution
deserves special attention. The Cornell Senate
Resolution does not mince words. It uses phrases
like crisis in the cost of journals, literally
unbearable, unsustainable, threatens to
undermine core academic values, Elsevier's
prices are radically out of proportion with the
importance of those journals
8
The last paragraph of the Cornell resolution
should be taken to heart by all scientific
communities, including ours the Senate
encourages the faculty to vigorously explore and
support alternatives to commercial venues for
scholarly communication. In the wake of
this call, I expressed my hope that our community
will rapidly expand both the society-owned
journals and the open-access online publications.
By donating our volunteer work as authors,
editors, and reviewers to commercial publishers,
we contribute to creating and perpetuating the
crisis.
Next come the excerpts from the Cornell Senate
Resolution shown at the business meeting.
(Emphasis added.)
9
Cornell Faculty Senate Resolution Resolution
regarding the University Librarys Policies on
Serials Acquisitions,with Special Reference to
Negotiations with Elsevier

A Crisis in the Cost of Journals in the Sciences
and Social Sciences

Commercial publishers charge moresometimes many
times morefor their materials than scholarly
societies or university presses do. ... Elsevier
... is the best example.
10
Over the last decade Elseviers price increases
have often been over 10 and occasionally over
20 on a year to year basis.

In 2003 Cornell subscribed to 930 Elsevier titles
at a cost of approximately 1.7million. Those 930
titles represent fewer than 2 of the total
number of serials titles to which Cornell
subscribes the 1.7 million comprises something
over 20 of thelibrarys total serials
expenditures, including those of the Medical
School.
11
Price increases ... that Elsevier regularly
expects have become ... unbearable. The long-term
trends ... are ... unsustainable.

The library ... has identified several hundred
Elsevier journals for cancellation at the end of
2003.

... there is ... increasing militancy among
university librarians and faculty with regard to
modes of response ... to Elseviers pricing
practices.
12
BE IT RESOLVED THAT

(2) ... selective cancellation of Elsevier
journals ...
(3) ... current trends regarding serials costs
are unsustainable ...
(4) Recognizing that the cost of Elsevier
journals in particular is radically out
ofproportion with the importance of those
journals to the librarys serials collection
... reduce its expenditures on Elsevier journals
by more than 25
13
(5) Recognizing that the increasing
control by large commercial
publishers over the publication and
distribution of the facultys
scholarship and research threatens to undermine
core academic values promoting broad and rapid
dissemination of new knowledge and unrestricted
access to the results of scholarship and
research, the University Faculty Senate
encourages the library and the faculty vigorously
to exploreand support alternatives to commercial
venues for scholarly communication.