Comments on: Fantasy Pricing – An Interview with Selden Lamoureux

By: Penny Ciancanelli

Penny Ciancanelli — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 13:45:24 +0000

What I find striking is the way in which this issue is sidelined by central administrators at larger universities. By imposing a limit on overall library expenditures, they delegate the problem to those who have limited ability to address the problem. By this I mean the financial managers of the university cannot ‘see’ the cost drivers in the core input into the production of new knowledge. Such managers blithely subcontract catering, increase the food purchasing options of undergraduates, make suppliers of paper clips compete for custom and so forth. Maybe they save 10% over a couple of years in spending on what is some distance from relevant to the university’s core mission. How do we explain this?

By: MP65reader

MP65reader — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 16:04:53 +0000

Interesting article. Consider differences between cost, value and price. Commodities typically have prices that are only marginally above costs. Non-commodities, such as scholarly content, are priced on value rather than cost. Software is a useful example. Cost to produce initial version is low, distribution costs have shrunk, value depends on usage, price is typically higher for large institutions than small. What Selden appears to be asking for is redistribution of the pricing rather than overall reduction–does that mean it is a zero sum game? I sympathize with libraries’ budget constraints, but fully expect publishers to continue to price on value and let our market system decide which publications thrive and which disappear. Perhaps there is a parallel to fantasy pricing in fantasy collection development?

By: ellie

ellie — Wed, 26 May 2010 20:42:41 +0000

Thank you Selden and Hilary. I was very interested to read about this from a large academic library’s perspective (vs. my large community college library). I was aware there was disparity in pricing, but was unaware of the magnitude. It’s so easy to only know your side and forget about all the other factors. I hope this interview generates a lot of discussion. I’d love to hear what other libraries/librarians focus on. I know I personally wish it were easier to purchase individual titles rather than bundles.