News
Is it autumn yet? As the temperatures rise, we hope that everyone is staying cool and enjoying all of the various summer activities offered in the Rockies.
If you didn’t see the announcement, AGU has decided to revert all of its journals to the online version and discontinue the print one. Here’s the announcement (posted on the bulletin board earlier this month):
The Demise of Print
No print subscriptions to AGU journals will be available after 2010. This change only applies to AGU journals and not to Eos and it will be announced to AGU members in an Eos article tomorrow (Albarède, F. (2008), The demise of print, Eos Trans. AGU, 89(28), 257). A copy of the article is available on AGU Web site at:http://www.agu.org/pubs/pdf/2008EO028_print_article.pdf.
The decision to move to online only journals was a difficult one to make and stemmed from two inescapable facts: the print product is becoming more and more only a pale replica of the electronic version and the cost of producing a printed version (and in turn print subscription prices) has escalated dramatically to a point where it will no longer be economically feasible to have a print version.
From the time AGU made the electronic journal the version of record in 2002, one of the goals was to take the journal beyond the printed page. This has led more authors to take advantage of the ability to use animations, video, and even interactive material and has also resulted in the print version being only an ersatz of the electronic one.
Another consideration is simply economic. The additional costs of producing a printed version of an AGU journal are borne only by the subscribers to that format. This pricing principle was established in fairness to those who take only the electronic version. As the number of print-only subscriptions continues to drop, there are fewer institutions over which to amortize the costs. Additionally, the production costs keep soaring - especially paper and postage. Thus, the price per subscription has been escalating rapidly.
What does this decision entail for libraries?Some changes will happen as early as next year, when AGU no longer accepts any new print subscriptions, although subscribers taking print in 2008 will be able to renew in that format in 2009. In 2010, a first round of AGU journals (to be announced in early to mid-2009) may become online-only. By 2011, all AGU journals, but not Eos, will be online-only products.
Institutions that still have print-only subscriptions to AGU journals in 2008 will be offered a free trial access to the online version later this year, as well as other incentives to encourage them to switch to electronic subscriptions. Any institution can provide desktop access to its researchers, faculty, and students for about 60% of the costs of the print subscription. If your institution currently has a mix of print and online subscriptions to AGU journals, please consider switching all of them to online-only.AGU is very much committed to remaining a leader in Earth and space science publishing. This move will ensure that costs are kept down, that only a superior product is delivered, and that AGU products are available to more users.
If you have any questions about this change and the new options available to your library, please feel free to contact AGU at institutions@agu.org.
Gloria will include this change in the AGU journals in her assessment of the library’s current subscriptions and future purchases for next year’s budget.
Staff Report
Gloria and Kristin have worked their way through most of the donations from Roger, and we will soon have the time to focus on all of the other library needs. Thanks to Roger for his generous donations!
Reminder
Thanks to those of you who contribute to the library’s candy fund. We greatly appreciate it.
New Items in the Library
Journals
Australian Antarctic, iss. 14
Polar Record, vol. 44, iss. 3, no. 230
Cold Regions Science and Technology, vol. 53, iss. 2
Research Report of the Public Works Research Institute, #210
EOS, vol. 89, iss. 27, 28
WDC-MARE Reports, #005 (2007), #006 (2008)
Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 35, iss. 10
Monthly Surface Climatic Data Report, China, Aug-Dec 2007
Physics Today, v. 61, iss. 7
Books, Reprints, etc.
Moutain Weather and Climate, 3rd edition by Roger G. Barry.
Investigating climate change : scientists search for answers in a warming world by Rebecca L. Johnson
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