Whose electronic library is it, anyway? Christine Roysdon and Brian Simboli Lehigh University

1. Whose electronic library is it, anyway? Christine Roysdon and Brian SimboliLehigh University

2. Lehigh in 1878 • Late 19th century book buying adventures • Demonstrated that Lehigh intended to be elite institution, with rare literature, history, science works

3. Among the early acquisitions…

4. 100 years later (around 1978)… • Overall size of the journal collection • Esoteric titles, languages • Depth and age – rarity, complete runs • Number of current subscriptions • Symbol of institution’s research strength

7. Whose subscription list is this, anyway?

8. Price increases continue to diminish our subscription resources

9. Price per download • 2004, Tetrahedron letters: $11,017/729 Cost per download = $15.12 • 2004, Organic letters: $3121/982 Cost per download = $3.17

10. “Ten things you can do to help in the scholarly communication crisis”, NCSU, 1992 • Send a signal to publishers by protesting current pricing policies. • Resign from the editorial boards of journals published by companies that practice exorbitant pricing. • Educate colleagues in professional societies about the hidden danger in contracting with commercial publishers to publish society journals, which often results in higher subscription prices for libraries.

11. Ten things you can do to help in the scholarly communication crisis, NCSU, 1992 • Encourage your professional associations and societies to resist the temptation to raise prices based on the models of commercial publishers. • Encourage university presses to undertake the publication of scholarly, refereed journals. • When submitting an article to a journal, consider the journal’s pricing policies and select the one with the fairest prices.

12. Cancellations continue…

13. Once there was one:

14. Nature Nature Biotechnology Nature Cell Biology Nature Chemical Biology Nature Clinical Practice journals Nature Clinical Practice Cardiovascular Medicine Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology Nature Clinical Practice Oncology Nature Clinical Practice Urology Nature Genetics Nature Immunology Nature Materials Nature Medicine Nature Methods Nature Neuroscience Nature Physics Nature Structural and Molecular Biology Nature Reviews journals Nature Reviews Cancer Nature Reviews Drug Discovery Nature Reviews Genetics Nature Reviews Immunology Nature Reviews Microbiology Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology Nature Reviews Neuroscience In 2005:

15. Who’s subscription list is it, anyway? • Diminished in size and variety • Driven by immediate needs, as evidenced by usage statistics, faculty surveys, and citation data

16. “Generic” journal collections

17. Content can be found elsewhere • Nature of roll to spiral-defect-chaos transitionX Li, H Xi, JD Gunton - Physical Review E, 1998 - link.aps.org Xiao-jun Li 1 , Hao-wen Xi 2 , and JD Gunton 1 1 Department of Physics, LehighUniversity, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 18015 2 Department of Physics and Astronomy ... • Cited by 75 - Web Search - arxiv.org - lehigh.edu - adsabs.harvard.edu - all 5 versions »

18. Whose (electronic)subscription list is it, anyway? • No longer perceived as a front end of a long-term collection– present is disconnected from the past • Diminished in size and variety by journal inflation • Strategic and opportunistic -- driven by immediate needs • Significant component of “generic” packaged content, rather than a distinctive, cultivated set of titles • “Subscription” content can often be found elsewhere -- easily

19. Whose electronic archives are they, anyway?

20. “Clearly the whole underpinnings of libraries and culture are at stake depending on the outcomes of the archiving dialogs that are in place now and will surely outlast our lifetimes” Ann Okerson, Yale, 1997 Archives issue

21. Lehigh policy for eonly conversion, 2001 • Rights to archived materials for which we had paid electronic access fees • Journal archive would be preserved through distributed backups and distributed archives • Access to archives in the event of discontinuation, sale, repackaging, or cessation. • Has been violated continuously!!

22. Drexel, 2005 • Another factor contributing to our decision to “go electronic” was the belief…that, in the electronic environment, preservation should no longer be the responsibility of many individual libraries. The model that makes sense in this new order is for a mix of organizations with national and international scope to step forward and assume archiving roles. This is, in fact, happening…

23. Best case, electronic archives • JSTOR • ACS, AIP • Highwire • Euclid

24. The instability of archives • Institutions that cancel “punished” with loss of paid backfile • Publisher mergers, lost titles • Rolling/broken off backfiles • Electronic journal archiving must be approached in an opportunistic, strategic way

26. Accidental vs. intentional preservation • Accidental preservation occurs with print • There is no accidental preservation in the electronic library

27. The return of accidental preservation

28. “Urgent Action Needed to Preserve Scholarly Electronic Journals” • Preservation of electronic journals is a kind of insurance • Qualified preservation archives would provide a minimal set of well-defined services • Libraries must invest in a qualified archiving solution • Research and academic libraries and associated academic institutions must effectively demand archival deposit by publishers as a condition of licensing electronic journals Statement endorsed by ARL, October 31, 2005

29. Local digital library infrastructure Metadata knowledge and project experience Expertise can be directed to new publications and to archives Whose electronic library will it be?