[LIS-Forum] Bold Norwegian librarians

[Subbiah Arunachalam]

Friends:

We must congratulate the four Norwegian university
librarians for the bold stand they have taken in not
renewing subscriptions to the 778 electronic journals 

published by British publishing house and making their
decision publicly known. Other librarians should
follow suit and authors around the world should
boycott publishing their papers in journals which
charge exhorbitant subscription prices.

Not only these publishers make huge profits and impose
highly restrictive copyright agreements on authors,
but also get into influential positions in
international organizations meant to support science
and scholarly communication in poor countries. Why
would international organizations allow such a thing -
counterproductive to their purported intentions - to
happen is a mystery.

Arun
[Subbiah Arunachalam]

------------------------

>From Peter Suber's "Open Access News"


 
Norwegian libraries reject Blackwell journals because
of high prices

Four Norwegian university libraries issued a joint
statement on January 2:

    This autumn Norwegian university libraries have
attempted to reach an agreement on access to
electronic journals from Blackwell Publishing. The
negotiations have come to an end without a successful
result.

    Therefore from January 1, 2007 library patrons at
the universities will no longer be able to access the
778 e-journals in Blackwell electronic portfolio. The
reason for this is that the university libraries feel
that Blackwell Publishing has stipulated unacceptable
conditions and price increases.

    “Blackwell has journals covering all universities
disciplines, so this will affect all our users,” says
library director Helge Salvesen of Tromsø University
Library. Libraries experience that publishers no
longer negotiate but dictate prices and access
conditions.  The university library directors are in
unanimous agreement that this situation is no longer
acceptable....

    Journal prices exceed the general retail price
index, and moderate increases in library budgets
cannot close the gap....

The statement is signed by the library directors of
the University of Trondheim, University of Tromsø,
University of Oslo, and University of Bergen.

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