Quote:
Originally Posted by Patricia
It's not that simple, unfortunately. In the days of paper, when your university decided to stop a subscription to Mind, or French History, then you still had the back issues of the journal on your library shelves.
Now, when your university cancels a subscription to a journal in electronic format, it entirely vanishes mmediately. You will no longer be able to look at the back numbers.
I know of several university departments near me, who would like to trim their library budget, owing to the financial situation.
A further problem arises when the publishers sell electronic journal subscriptions in bundles. You might no longer want the Journal of Obscure Studies, or Metatextual Musings, but you can't get rid of them without losing the one journal that you do actually want.
Believe me, librarians and academics on the library commitee are tearing out their hair about this. We are saving a lot of valuable shelf-space; scholars can access journals from their homes; but the cost of renting these journals is more than you think. And while the publishers may call it an electronic subscription, it's really just an expensive rental.
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Sure, I can understand that but that isn't a DRM technology issue which is what I'm talking about. With ebooks, the DRM are prohibitive and attached to the ebook. The academic journals don't have PDFs with DRM. You are right about the point that once the university stops "subscribing" to those electronic formats, the entire access goes away.