Up goes the cost for content - rent to view

Libraries in the future can only expect the price of content to really escalate.

The price of licensing access to an aggregator such as Ebsco, Gale, ProQuest and others can only rise – a lot more than the 3-5% annual rate we have come to know. Why?

As more journal copyright owners pull out their content from these aggregators, they leave with them only the rights to index or hold the abstract. When the researcher who uses the aggregator’s database finds what they want, if it is only indexed (beware the words bibliographic record = index) they must then go to the journal website and buy it, rent it, view it, lease it or whatever term the owner of the copyright decides best expresses what they are charging for. Average price seems to about $35 for 24 hours to view the article. Not own it, or download it, or keep it, just to view it. That is why I think to stop this mass exodus of content the aggregators will have to sweeten what they are willing to pay to the copyright owners and then I know they will move that cost to us - the library.

While looking for one of these errant journals, I noted that the author of the content, in order to have their research published in the journal and also be allowed to have it open access, had to pay over $1000 to the journal for the privilege. This is not the same as what is going on with open access and research being published which is funded with federal dollars. Those authors will get their research onto open access sites, but it maybe embargoed and will have no publisher value added editing etc.

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