From: Rick Anderson <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 2013 03:02:01 +0000

>I understand that efficiencies benefit the entire system, but
>discerning the history of a particular piece of scholarship used to be
>a part of the value that the distributor added to the process. Now it
>is being asked of the publisher. It feels a bit like being asked to
>bag our own groceries after first removing our own products from the
>shelves.

You've got it backwards. In the scenario you propose, the people buying
the groceries are the librarians. You (publishers) are farmers who are
being asked by the grocers (vendors) to say whether you're sending them
apples or apricots or artichokes to sell. And you're objecting to this
request on the basis that some customers don't like artichokes, and that
if you tell the grocers you're sending artichokes it's going to hurt your
business.

But it's also important to point out that none of this is about
"efficiency." It's about effectiveness. It's about helping libraries --
which, let us remember, exist to help the scholars who are writing these
books -- buy the books that will help those scholars best.

>I also think that many publishers fundamentally disagree with some
>librarians about the value added in the revision and publication of a
>book based on previous work.

I'm sure they do. Sellers very often disagree with their customers about
the value of their goods and services. Unfortunately for sellers, their
value propositions carry very little weight in a marketplace. It's buyers,
not sellers, that determine the market value of products.

>While I may
>technically work for the library here, my job is to champion the work
>of our authors. I do not see in this scenario how communicating that
>their book is based on their previous work benefits them.

It doesn't, any more than it benefits the producer of a breakfast cereal
to identify the ingredients in its product. Those who pay attention to
ingredient lists are less likely to buy if they learn that a product
contains stuff they don't like. But that's no excuse for a food producer
to fail to list its ingredients.

In other words, if you're concerned that telling us what you're selling is
going to hurt your business, then there may be a problem with your
product.


---
Rick Anderson
Interim Dean, J. Willard Marriott Library
University of Utah
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