From: Sandy Thatcher <[log in to unmask]> Date: Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:26:00 -0600 I don't mean to minimize the constraints within which librarians operate, Chuck, but there are still choices librarians can make, such as between buying into a big deal and providing access "by the drink," as I believe you pioneered years ago, right? At some point, I'd imagine, depending on rates of usage, and the per-item cost, the latter becomes a more attractive option. And scholars always have the option of writing to the individual author and requesting a copy gratis, or using the posted Green OA version. To John Abbott's point: the reason most university presses did not have the scalable infrastructure is because their parent universities decided not to provide the funding to make it possible! Recall that the John Hopkins University Press began by publishing STM journals, in mathematics, chemistry, etc. (The chemistry journal was later sold to the American Chemical Society.) Academic publishing (outside of textbook publishing) was far better developed within universities than in the commercial sector prior to WWII. There was a base to build upon, rather than creating it de novo, as people like Robert Maxwell had to do. There is absolutely nothing about university press publishing that stood in the way of its being scaled up to the level that commercial publishers eventually attained over decades of investment. It's just that universities chose not to make investments in this area, preferring instead, e.g., to throw a lot of money in the direction of big-time athletics. We all know how that has worked out.... Sandy Thatcher