This week's unit focused on pricing models and consortial arrangements. The further I get into this class the more I realize that even with as much as we're reading and discussing, this is just skimming the surface of electronic resource management. I almost wish there was some way to include a practicum option with the course in order to get some hands-on shadowing time with librarians who confront and work with the issues about which our class is reading.
For example, one reading this week was from 1988 called "Journal Publishing: Pricing and Structural Issues in the 1930s and 1980s." As I read the historical rundown of libraries' journey with serials and the unique issues it faced back then, I was not sure how to respond to the recommendations provided by the authors at the completion of the article. The authors recommended in four of six different points that, in order to change the way serials were going, librarians had the responsibility to – in short – step it up. While the other two recommendations focused on library organizations and the academic and research library community, librarians as individuals were called on to do a better job at being more informed and up to speed on the publishing industry.
If only Astle and Hamaker could see us now! It is truly amazing to have read something written a year after I was born (yeah, do the math…I'm a young'in) and how very recent it was that librarians were being called out for not knowing enough about the publishing industry and not taking better initiative with serials management. When I think of journals and the issues and obstacles librarians have topped and continue to work with today, I am very impressed. An entire generation of librarians, in my lifetime alone, have come SO far with figuring out how to negotiate the publishing environment and have seen such unbelievable leaps and bounds in issues they face that challenge the way "business is done" in libraries.
So what does that mean for me, an up-and-coming librarian, one aspiring to work in the field of medical librarianship where cost of journals and subscriptions are of prime importance? For one thing, I think this generation of library school students has big shoes to fill. :) Second, I think it is vital that we are able to have the face to face working relationships, almost like apprenticeships, with the librarians who helped usher libraries to where we currently stand today. I am a firm believer that even the most streamlined and sophisticated of educational programs cannot trump real life experience, and while newcomers to the field may offer fresh perspective, there will always be significant value in understanding and building on what came before.
Lastly, one thing I guess I'm still wondering about is whether or not consortia are the "way of the future" with regard to how to manage electronic journals. I am not skillfully versed in what we have here at UW, but we had the opportunity to listen to a few guest speakers in class yesterday who work at Wisconsin Library Service (WiLS), who negotiate electronic resources through cooperative purchasing licenses as well as other consortial services. As Clement (2008) points out, the literature evidences that there are both intellectual as well as financial benefits to consortial arrangements for electronic resources. However, does each library in the consortia have the same resources, and if so, will that make for more uniform collections across agreements? Lack of diversity of collections was one of the drawbacks cited in reference to Big Deals offered by publishers, as scholars like Best (2009) believed Big Deals risked creating standardized collections on campuses around the country. Could consortia risk doing the same?
Image credit: Wikimedia by Albi V R.
No comments:
Post a Comment