ABSTRACT
What almost all players in this game seem to agree upon is that we are in a state of change as a result of the possibilities of full-text electronic access to the content of serials. One of the central impacts of this state of change is the difficulty of ascertaining specific costs associated with electronic serials, particularly for aggregated content. Bill Robnett states (in a personal conversation around April 2001) that when he wrote the chapter on online journals pricing for the first edition of this book, there seemed to be more availability of list prices. His bibliography and content reflect some of this information.2 However, due to shifts in the marketing strategies of publishers and vendors, many of the sources of information he used in his article are no longer available today. Currently, the real cost of electronic serials, particularly for aggregated content, seems to be a moving target. Cost information is most readily gathered directly from the vendor, and comparisons of cost are best made by talking with those at similar institutions who have paid for access to the same product or service. Although some useful comparisons for individual electronic serial titles are beginning to appear in the literature, similar comparisons for aggregator and bundled products are largely absent. (Though in some cases they can be much the same, aggregator products consist of serials from various publishers with the full-text content negotiated by the aggregator or vendor, while bundled products consist of a number of serials, from one publisher, bundled together.)
As specific prices are often not freely available in the current literature, this chapter focuses on some of the emerging cost and packaging trends and on some of the views of librarians, scholars, vendors, and publishers impacting and being impacted by these trends. Examples of some of the trends are provided and average price projections for individual serials are presented. Some strategies and plans being developed to push toward more affordable access to electronic resources are highlighted, and the possible benefits and drawbacks of some existing trends are discussed.
