It's not even that simple. The publisher prefers subscription over individual articles, groups of serials over individual serials, etc. It's a game of lock-in and domination ... *power* and influence. To think of it in terms of $19/article misses the point entirely.
Were I to take Nick's troll seriously, the question is How did they come up with *that* price, for *that* article in *that* journal? If we assume $19 is more than most individuals would pay for an individual article, then we can infer that the publisher isn't interested in selling that article for $19. The publisher wants to influence the individual to *use* a library. And, better yet, *ask* the library to get the article. And, better still, ask the library to subscribe to the (bundle of) journal(s) that would automatically include that article. So $19 is purposefully too expensive ... maybe just slightly so ... It's kinda like sin taxes, where They™ want to influence us one way or another to suit whatever Nefarious™ purposes they hold prominent. Not only do universities apply such influence by propping up libraries, cities can do it, too. Arguably, the ONLY thing that I miss about Portland is Powell's Books, which may *seem* like a book store. But it's definitely more like a library than a book store. It's certainly as different from your local mall's Barnes & Noble as the Trinity College library is from our local library. Flattening out all this glorious, multi-scalar, multi-modal infrastructure into some narrative about making a buck is preposterous. On 6/30/21 6:05 AM, Pieter Steenekamp wrote: > It seems like the publisher's business model is to maximize their profits by > selling at a high price to libraries. > > On Wed, 30 Jun 2021 at 03:27, <[email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > > Well, exactly! > > So, if your competitor is a Library who circulates documents for free, > What is your business model if you are charging 19 dollars? > > N > > Nick Thompson > [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/ > <https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/> > > -----Original Message----- > From: Friam <[email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>> On Behalf Of u?l? ?>$ > Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2021 2:54 PM > To: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] of straw and steel > > It's called "The Library". Surely you have some of those near you, right? > > https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=no%3A42429544 > <https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=no%3A42429544> > > On 6/26/21 9:13 AM, [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]> wrote: > > I don’t understand the business model. Who actually pays 19 dollars to > read an article? > > > > > On Thu, Jun 24, 2021 at 8:59 AM uǝlƃ ☤>$ <[email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]> <mailto:[email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>>> wrote: > > > > Fooling the Victim: Of Straw Men and Those Who Fall for Them > > https://muse.jhu.edu/article/796000 > <https://muse.jhu.edu/article/796000> > > <https://muse.jhu.edu/article/796000 > <https://muse.jhu.edu/article/796000>> -- ☤>$ uǝlƃ - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/
