RE: FTE-based pricing

["Wright, Jen" <WrightJ@library.phila.gov>]

The problem I see with that is budgeting.  We really need to 
stick within a budget and a purely usage based model wouldn't 
allow us to plan very accurately.  It would be nice to pay less 
for the items that we have very little usage on, though.  We 
rarely use Dissertation Abstracts as a public library, so why 
should we pay as much as an academic library of a similar size?

I'm just not sure how vendors could accurately anticipate usage. 
If our usage goes up dramatically, as we hope to promote all our 
resources, then the resource could then be too expensive for next 
year's budget.

Jennifer R Wright
Electronic/Digital Resources Coordinator
Free Library of Philadelphia
www.library.phila.gov

-----Original Message-----
[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Sally Morris
(Chief Executive)
Sent: Friday, October 13, 2006 4:48 PM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: Re: FTE-based pricing

What is people's view on usage-based pricing (or at least a 
component of the pricing model)?  It would seem to be the fairest 
way of reflecting actual use, if that's the issue rather than 
potential use.  Some have argued, however, that it would 
discourage use - though I can't see that use of telephones or 
electric lights is affected this way...

Sally Morris, Chief Executive
Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers
Email: sally.morris@alpsp.org
Website:  www.alpsp.org