Confrontation not

Conversation

Ooooooops!

I meant…

ConversationNOT

Confrontation:

A report from the May 24, 2006joint MLA/SSP SessionMLA Annual Meeting

Phoenix, AZ

M.J. TooeyImmediate Past President, MLA

Executive Director, HS/HSL University of Maryland Baltimore

June 7, 2006

Project Background

• My participation in previous SSP programs• Meeting with Norman Frankel, Carla Funk

and me last spring• Follow-up in the fall• Planning • Invitations of speakers and audience

Participants from MLA

• MLA Board of Directors• MLA Scholarly Publishing Task Force• Chairs of Vital Pathways Project Task

Forces• Chairs of Collection Development,

Technical Services, and Public Services Sections

Participants from SSP

• Norman Frankel• Margaret Reich• Panelists

• Ken Fulton - PNAS• Tom Richardson - NEJM• Nancy Rodnan – JBC• Diane Scott-Richter - Blackwell

Format for the Day

• Welcome and ground rules (TR – kevlar tie)• Opening statements from the panelists –

were given questions in advance, 10-15 minutes

• General questions from audience• Five breakout groups• Reporting back

Key Comments – Ken Fulton

• Biggest issue – access – in what format?• Public access – author submissions not a

success – 4%, Cornyn-Lieberman• Scientific conduct – most journals are not

set up to play detective• Impact of new technologies

Key Comments – Nancy Rodnan

• JBC – revenue source for society• Two review process = declining

submissions• Open access > main concern = version

control• Global markets want print• Will be instituting submission fee in

September

Key Comments – Diane Scott-Richter

• Blackwell works with societies to publish journals and increase the intellectual standing of the journals

• Content is no longer king – access is• Working with societies to digitize backfiles• Need fewer journals

Key Comments – Tom Richardson

• It’s all about change - the pace of change, trying to manage change and making change part of what we do everyday

• Public Access – what are the goals we are trying to reach? Dr. Zerhouni’s goals of creating public access, a stable archive, data mining of NIH research – good. Publishers objected to being dictated to

Key Comments/QuestionsGeneral Session

• Decontainerization – would any publisher think of selling parts of articles?

• Comments about how users want to go directly to article level, bypassing publisher portal and journal. Similar situation for libraries

• May need multiple formats. Research by Carol Tenopir suggests browsing in print, subject level research online

General Session Comments/Questions cont.

• Why are there subscription cost increases? Need list of reasons subs go up every year. Our budgets aren’t

• How can publishers help us to educate our administrators about costs and pricing models?

• Hospital libraries are really pinched• Interesting comment about changing from a online

pricing model based on print subs. CA move to value-base subscription studies –Bergstrom/McAfee

General Session Comments/Questions cont.

• Maybe journals should ask librarians about features and technology – are they really needed/desired?

• Unfair pricing – example of smaller university paying more for less journals than larger university – set a pricing model so the playing field is level

• How would publishers like to see the PA policy implemented?

Reporting out from small groups

• Ask us about new features• Don’t confuse open and public access• We too are concerned about version control,

linking of errata, maintenance of flawed article• The ILL question – why can’t we get this

resolved?• How about pay per view – anybody

implementing?

Small groups cont.

• Don’t want publishers to see PubMed Central data – might be used against us

• Walmart pricing model – lower prices, more customers• When will societies not publish at all? Could just appear

on web site• Will there ever be perpetual access? LOCKSS,

CLOCKSS, Portico. Institutional repositories?• Negotiating of licenses – lawyers, procurement, some

licenses change every year

Small groups cont.

• Librarians have to do the work of the subscription agents and publishers – verifying lists, etc. How do we get licenses and subscriptions right?

• Learned why there are no ILLs to outside of US• Bad librarians posting userids and passwords and

not getting copyright permissions for distance ed, reserves, etc

Small groups cont.

• When there is a correction or errata, can we get an automatic link/update?

• What do users really want in a manuscript? Would they pay for special features?

• Fabrication, falsification, plagiarism• Copyright – authors don’t know what they agreed

to – should be able to use their own articles

Next Steps…

• Can we hear the recordings?• Should or could we do this again?• Inclusion of subscription agents next time?• How to continue this dialogue?

Questions?