I wanted to send the following excerpt from a recent memo to all
Faculty, Deans, Directors, and Chairs at UW from Betty G. Bengtson,
Directory of University Libraries at University of Washington,  Sept.
19, 1997.  This beautifully summarizes the state of the market for new
journal launches and I think strengthens the case for the proposed
structure of Haptics-e. Although electronic journals are still
expensive for libraries, clearly the cost of computing resources is
dropping and the cost of print resources is not or is rising.

I've also attached her email about this excerpt.

Blake


> 
> "Librarians who select information resources for the Libraries 
> have been instructed to plan for ways to decrease expenditures during the 
> biennium by [US$659,000(!)] so that we can live within our
> budget. This will translate into cancellation of serial subscriptions 
> and decisions not to purchase books and other information resources."
> 
> "Publishers now routinely build into their pricing structure the cost to
> them of the increasing number of cancelations by libraries. The volatility and 
> unpredicatbility of various currencies for materials published abroad and new
> pricing structures and licensing fees for electronic information also 
> affect materials prices."
> 
> "We will also increase our ability to offer full text scholarly journals
> electronically.  To date, we have not
> found this to be a less expensive alternative to print journals, though 
> electronic journals bring other advantages of convenience, availability,
> and searchability that are very desirable. We will continue to seek ways
> to mitigate our materials purchasing power."
> 



From bbengt@u.washington.edu Sun Oct 12 12:26 PDT 1997
From: Betty Bengtson <bbengt@u.washington.edu>
To: Blake Hannaford <blake@isdl.ee.washington.edu>
cc: betty bengtson <bbengt@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: 2nd req: Memo of Sept 19

Blake: 

You do have my permission to quote from my letter on your website.
...  Most electronic journals are by subscription; but
some are free.. at the moment, anyway.  In our efforts to expand our
offerings we are providing both.  Even those that are "free" (i.e., no
subscription cost) cost us something (technology infrastructure, need to
maintain links, providing training, etc.).  However, they are less costly
than those for which we pay a subscription.

A key issue for us re electronic journals is that of archiving, or access
over time.  Who will be responsible for providing access to the journal 10
or 25 or 50 years from now?  How to handle migration to new hardware and
software and the technology changes?  Other issues related to indexing,
bibliographic retrieval (knowing that a journal exists and what articles
have been published) are also important, as well as the technology used.

I am interested in your efforts to create an electronic journal.  Let me
know how that goes.

Best wishes.

Betty