RE: FTE-based pricing

["Mary Summerfield" <msummerfield@press.uchicago.edu>]

An issue that hasn't been considered much in this discussion is 
the fact that the users of digital resources acquired by 
libraries are not the people who are paying for these resources 
(the libraries).

These users have no reason to constrain their use of these 
resources -- nor would it be good for society if they did given 
the very low cost of their using them.  However, the libraries 
face very real costs of that use if usage is the basis for 
charging for these resources.

Mary Summerfield
Director, Business Development and Planning
University of Chiago Press

-----Original Message-----
[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Sally Morris (Chief
Executive)
Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2006 3:25 PM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: Re: FTE-based pricing

Isn't this just a matter of time and familiarity?  Despite the 
scorn which has been poured on my use of the utilities analogy, 
I'm sure everyone manages to budget fairly well for electricity 
and phone costs - usage doesn't in fact increase dramatically 
year on year.  I would anticipate that it would be the same with 
online resources.  Yes, we all hope that usage would increase as 
users became more familiar with the resources at their disposal 
(and libraries and publishers promoted them better).  But this 
couldn't, realistically, go on increasing dramatically year on 
year - users simply don't have more reading time at their 
disposal.  So I'd expect levels of usage to level off after a 
while

This might mean, however, that it's too soon to know how to price 
a usage-based model - the more prudent approach might be to 
introduce a (fairly small) usage element into existing models and 
start working out what 'price-per-use' might produce the desired 
effect (i.e. staying in business!)

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

----- Original Message -----
From: "Wright, Jen" <WrightJ@library.phila.gov>
To: <liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Thursday, October 19, 2006 12:21 AM
Subject: RE: FTE-based pricing

> 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