The Economics of Information in the Networked Environment

Meredith A. Butler, Bruce R. Kingma

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780367424596
• eBook ISBN: 9781000758009
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Library & Information Science
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

In this book, first published in 1998, world-renowned experts on the subject of contemporary librarianship analyse the problems associated with coping with an ever-expanding knowledge base, given their current economic constraints and budgets. It examines challenging marketplace solutions to problems in the economics of information; economic modelling of investments in information resources at academic institutions; the economics of resource sharing, consortia, and document delivery; and measuring the costs and benefits of distance learning.

PART I:
CHALLENGING MARKETPLACE SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS IN THE ECONOMICS OF INFORMATION

Conference Themes

Funding the knowledge infrastructure-the development, expansion, and maintenance of the network, computing resources, the electronic library, electronic classrooms, and faculty development-has become an issue vital to the long-term viability of today’s research universities. The current national climate is focused on greater privatization and marketplace solutions. The current economic climate demands greater economic efficiencies in the production of scholarship and the distribution and use of scholarly information. Today’s students and faculty demand greater breadth, scope and ease of information access, and user-centered organizational cultures in which economic costs are balanced against user benefits. Academic officers and university administrators planning the delivery of educational services are asked to reconcile these competing and confusing forces. They are asked to make economic decisions which may have significant long-term impact and short-term viability.

This conference brought together academic officers, chief information officers and other administrators, economists, and other interested faculty, librarians, computing professionals, and representatives from higher education associations, to examine issues related to the development of the knowledge infrastructure and their economic impact on higher education. Participants explored the role higher education can play in the public policy debates on the economics of information access and delivery. Participants examined case studies in the infrastructure, including print and electronic journals, library consortia, delivery options, and network resources, and services for research universities.

[Haworth co-indexing entry note]: “Conference Themes.” Co-published simultaneously in Journal of Library Administration (The Haworth Press, Inc.) Vol. 26, No. 1/2, 1998, pp. 1-8; and: The Economics of Information in the Networked Environment (ed: Meredith A. Butler, and Bruce R. Kingma) The Haworth Press, Inc., 1998, pp. 1-8.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

David Roselle, President of the University of Delaware, spoke about the university’s experiences implementing new technology. President Roselle related the experiences of the university in providing students with electronic access to their university records, enabling students to have the answers to many frequently asked questions over the university network. The university also began a program to subsidize the purchase of computers by faculty and students and an upgrade of the local computer network. President Roselle outlined the costs and benefits of the University at Delaware’s investment in information technology and services, and noted that improvements in service and access for students and faculty came at an increase in costs.

The second keynote speaker was Mario Morino, President of the Morino Institute, who spoke of impending change he foresaw coming in universities as a result of information technology. Mario Morino told the audience of the dramatic changes coming to higher education, including a significant downsizing and redefining the role of higher education. Mr. Morino challenged the audience to envision the potential of technology in higher education.

THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION’S PROGRAM IN THE ECONOMICS OF INFORMATION

William Bowen, President of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, presented information on the JSTOR project. The JSTOR project is an electronic database containing digitized images of all pre-1990 issues of ten core scholarly journals in the fields of economics and history. Dr. Bowen described the history of the JSTOR project along with the Mellon Foundation’s interactions with publishers and the need for archival considerations of these journals. Archiving the past one-hundred years of ten core journals and developing a search engine that provides scholars with searchable access to the articles is an important development in scholarship. Dr. Bowen also described possible library and individual subscription policies of the JSTOR project, both of which may provide significant savings to subscribers in storage and access costs.

ECONOMIC MODELING OF INVESTMENTS IN INFORMATION RESOURCES AT ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS

This session convened a panel of four distinguished economists. Professor Malcolm Getz, Vanderbilt University, moderated the presentations by Professor Roger Noll, Stanford University; Professor Hal Varian, University of California at Berkeley; and Professor Michael McPherson, Williams College.

Professor Noll gave an overview of the economics of information including the high rate of return on information in the United States, the value of university research in the United States, and the public good model of information. Dr. Noll also explained the economics of research journal publishing, in print and electronic format. He explained that while electronic journals may have some cost savings, quality enhancements may increase the costs.

Professor Varian examined the economics of the Internet and electronic publishing. Dr. Varian spoke on the history, financing, and future of the Internet. This included an explanation of the current traffic and increasing demand and congestion. Professor Varian explained the business model of the Internet and possible methods of financing Internet services and metering traffic. He discussed several models of scholarly communication over the Internet that may replace the current print journal model. Dr. Varian also examined the problems of ownership of intellectual property, pricing, payment, refereeing, publishing, valuing, and the costs of scholarly communication in electronic format.

Professor McPherson described the economics of journal pricing and interlibrary loan. Dr. McPherson spoke on the value of electronic journals, journal reputation, and the future of scholarly communications. He also explained the interdependency within the academic community for access to scholarly journals and books.

CASE STUDIES IN TRANSFORMING THE SCHOLARLY PROCESS: COSTS AND BENEFITS OF COOPERATION

In this session, the speakers provided examples of the transformation taking place in research as a result of electronic access. Speakers presented examples from their organizations and described the benefits and costs of projects using electronic access. Duane Webster, Executive Director of the Association of Research Libraries, served as moderator.

Richard E. Lucier, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Information Management at the University of California, San Francisco, presented several examples of electronic resources available at his library. Shrinking library budgets, increasing paper based journal prices, and increasing demand for electronic resources required Dr. Lucier to downsize the library resources spent on the paper based library and increase the resources spent on the electronic library. Dr. Lucier presented the Knowledge Management Model of paper based and electronic resources. Dr. Lucier also talked about the costs and financing of the Red Sage Project which provides electronic access to 100 medical journals.

Richard Rockwell, Executive Director of the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, presented the history and present status of the ICPSR collection of databases. Dr. Rockwell talked about the ability of the Internet and networked campuses to provide access by researchers to the database, where previously access was provided via a campus representative. He also spoke of the present funding and membership fees for ICPSR and the budget difficulties they faced. New funding strategies and new services offered by ICPSR were explored.

Rush Miller, Director of Libraries at the University of Pittsburgh, presented a paper by Burkart Holzner, Director of the University Center for International Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Holzner’s paper described the Research Libraries Project Task Force on Acquisition and Distribution of Foreign Language and Area Studies Materials, conducted by the Association of American Universities in collaboration with the Association of Research Libraries, and supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. He recommends and discusses three methods of funding for strategies proposed by the project; funding from library acquisitions budgets for those participating in the project, cost recovery for document delivery, and grants from foundations and governments.

ALTERNATIVES TO CURRENT ACCESS MODELS IN RESEARCH LIBRARIES-THE ECONOMICS OF RESOURCE SHARING, CONSORTIA, AND DOCUMENT DELIVERY

Meredith Butler, Dean and Director of Libraries at the University at Albany, and Bruce R. Kingma, Assistant Professor at the University at Albany, presented the results of a Council on Library Resources sponsored study on the economics of access versus ownership. James F. Williams II, Director of Libraries at the University of Colorado, served as moderator for this session.

Meredith Butler reviewed the results of several previously funded studies on the use of academic journal subscriptions. Dean Butler spoke of the value in providing cost per use statistics to faculty who had to participate in the difficult task of cutting journal subscriptions.

Bruce Kingma reviewed the methodology and results of the cost-benefit analysis on providing access to journal articles via a library subscription versus interlibrary loan. This study included the opportunity cost or value of the inconvenience to patrons of waiting for access to a journal article ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Part I: Challenging Marketplace Solutions to Problems in the Economics of Information
• Part II: The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’S Program in the Economics of Information
• Part III: Economic Modeling of Investments in Information Resources at Academic Institutions
• Part IV: Case Studies in Transforming the Scholarly Process: Costs and Benefits of Cooperation
• Part V: Alternatives to Current Access Models in Research Libraries
• Part VI: Can E-Journals Save us?
• Part VII: Economic Considerations for Digital Libraries
• Part VIII: The Economics of Information Access in Higher Education
• Part IX: The Limits of Marketplace Solutions and the Need for Collaboration
• Part X: The Economics of Information and the Need for Collaboration–Creating a Research Agenda
• Appendix