on Tue, 10 Feb 2004 Stevan Harnad <[email protected]> wrote:
[snip]
> It does seem ironic, though, that a spokesman on behalf of the
> developing world (ARS) should be making common cause with a publicist for
> toll-access publishers (AH) who has long argued that the solution to the
> serials crisis is to find money (from somewhere) to give to libraries,
> so they can keep paying the rising journal prices. (It has repeatedly
> been pointed out that "find money, somewhere, to pay the rising prices"
> would be a universal formula for propping up the prices of all products
> and services, if there were the money, somewhere.)
There was no problem linking library and R&D
spending during the 1960s, when political
pressures demanded better science. It would
seem fundamental to any school child that
spending on libraries used to prepare R&D
must be a part of R&D policy.
It was only after Western men walked on the
moon that universities felt comfortable cutting
money from libraries and sending it to the
bottom line. The money is there, in the
surpluses that show up clearly in tax reports
and in the statistics of income and expenditure.
Best wishes,
Albert Henderson
Pres., Chess Combination Inc.
POB 2423 Bridgeport CT 06608-0423
<[email protected]>
