Serials: Cornell University Libraries Face Escalating Journal Costs

From the Cornell Sun (Student Newspaper):

The University Library’s budget is being “stretched thin” due to the “dramatically increasing” prices of scientific journals, according to Prof. Nerissa Russell, anthropology, chair of the University Faculty Library Board.
“There’s been tremendous consolidation in the publishers, and things that used to be published on their own by learned societies are now being contracted out to these commercial publishers,” Russell said Wednesday at a Faculty Senate meeting. “There are about five commercial publishers, and they’re jacking up the prices to make money because they can.”

Thoughts on Open Access?

“Open-access is desirable in terms of making research available to taxpayers and people who need it, but it’s not clear that it’s going to cost less to the library,” she [Russell] said. “The only real solution to this is to somehow get publication out of the hands of for-profit publishers, but the trend has been in the completely opposite direction.”

Read the Complete Article (Includes Comment From Cornell President David Skorton)
See Also: Cornell University Faculty Library Board Info Page

Filed under: Companies (Publishers/Vendors), Libraries, News, Open Access