Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2008 10:52:49 +0530 From: Kshipra Sardesai Madam, I also support your views. There is no imprtance or real valuation of rare things unless we priced it.I found whatever is free to public no one bothers for the services offered by such organisations like Library which are doing a great job of making such things available to public.The profit makers are always in search of ways out to make money.Government may fix some nominal charges on such rare collection and can divert this revenue for digitisation and infrastructure required for libraries to give best services. Kshipra Sardesai Asstt Librarian RBI, Bandra Mumbai 400051 On Fri, Apr 11, 2008 at 5:24 PM, Mailing List Admin < mailman@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in> wrote:

Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:19:29 +0530 From: Susmita Chakraborty

With regard to Mr. Leonard Fernandes' comments, I have a question to ask the LIS community.

When some (rare) resources are uploaded so that everyone can have it for free, is it not defeating the purpose if someone (publisher or any other other profitmaking body) tries to earn profit from it? On the other hand, I feel that libraries having such rich archives must go the digital way(digitization and dissemination of rare materials) by exploring state/national government or other funds and then try to derive some revenue from these resources to cover the running costs of those libraries.

In these days of finance-crunch, it may point out one way to break-even.

Regards.

Susmita Chakraborty Bengal Engineering & Science University, Shibpur, Howrah, W.B.