Analog to Digital Query

["Michael Carroll" <Carroll@law.villanova.edu>]

Dear all,

Can anyone point me to published articles, other resources, or 
even your own recollections about how libraries built and shared 
their collections of peer reviewed journals in the pre-digital 
era?

I'm particularly interested in the question of whether the 
practical loss of libraries' first sale rights has had an impact 
on the circulation of this literature or its price.  (As you 
probably know, copyright law's first sale doctrine gives the 
purchaser of a copy the right to sell or lend that copy without 
having to ask the copyright owner's permission.  When a library 
licenses access to a publisher's database instead of purchasing 
copies, the library no longer owns copies that it can lend 
(through ILL) or sell in a market for used serials.)

Specifically, was (and is) there a market for used, peer reviewed 
serials (bound or unbound)?  If so, I'm interested in the 
details.  Why would a library sell these?  (Owned more than one 
set?  No longer collecting in particular discipline?)  Who were 
the purchasers?

Thanks in advance,

Michael W. Carroll
Professor of Law
Villanova University School of Law
Villanova, PA 19085
Research papers: http://law.bepress.com/michael_carroll
http://ssrn.com/author=330326
blog: http://www.carrollogos.org/

See also www.creativecommons.org