Readers might be interested in the paper by Tina Chrzastowski, chemistry librarian at the University of Illinois, entitled "Making the Transition from Print to Electronic Serials Collections: A New Model for Chemistry Libraries?" Tina delivered this paper at the Tri-Society (ACS-ASIST-SLA) Conference on Chemical Information in Los Angeles in June. It caused quite a stir when she reported that the U of I Library now gets about 95% of its use from the electronic collection, leading to a decision to stop binding paper journals and to store them off site after one year. http://www.sla.org/division/dche/2002/tina.pdf At Indiana University, the combined backfiles of the ACS journals plus the Elsevier Science Inorganic, Organic, Physical/Analytical backfiles allow us to consider the same new model of access that Tina has proposed. (Indiana University just opened a 2.7 million off-site sotrage facility in October 2002.) Of the 200+ current journal subscriptions in the Chemistry Library, approximately 15% are no longer received in print format, and only about a dozen have no electronic access at the present time. Of those, a few actually do not yet provide an electronic copy, but in the other cases, we elected not to subscribe due to the outrageous pricing of the publisher. Electronic holdings of the IU Chemistry Library (not yet updated with the Elsevier ScienceDirect Physical/Analytical titles which we just bought) can be seen at: http://www.indiana.edu/~libchem/402ejrnl.html Gary D. Wiggins Head, Chemistry Library 800 E. Kirkwood Avenue Chemistry Bldg C003 Indiana University Bloomington, IN 47405-7102 Bus: (812) 855-9452 Bus Fax: (812) 855-6611 E-mail: wiggins@indiana.edu -----Original Message----- From: Rzepa, Henry [mailto:h.rzepa@ic.ac.uk] Sent: Sunday, January 05, 2003 6:53 AM To: chemweb@ic.ac.uk Subject: Public library of Science Although little discussed on this list (other lists have extensive discussions) the evolution of peer-reviewed journals to adapt to the Internet has been remarkable, although not necessarily in step between the interests of the publisher, the author and the reader. Chemistry journals have followed the crowd (I think its fair to say that with a few honourable exceptions, they tend to be conservative, perhaps mirroring the audience?). It is with interest therefore that http://www.publiclibraryofscience.org/journals.htm reports an intention of launching "PLoS Chemistry". In the manifesto, they state "we estimate that it will cost us approximately $1,500 per published paper to maintain an outstanding editorial staff, coordinate peer-review, and produced polished finished works, and we will set our charges to match these costs" although they also write "We understand that there are many scientists who might wish to publish in our journals but do not have access to grant funds or institutional support to allow them to pay publication fees, and we will substantially reduce or waive the publication fees for any authors for whom they would be a burden". We dont yet know if this journal will be conventional in offering eg Acrobat delivery of electronic paper, or otherwise; it certainly will be of interest to see how they adapt to the rather unique culture in chemistry (which, inter alia, assumes that only perhaps the 10 top journals "really matter"). In terms of the impact that e-journals have had, its certainly true that we are now seriously considering reducing the amount of physical space devoted to printed journals in our own library very substantially, and it may be that pretty much all paper will be eliminated within five years (apparently the resale value of bound volumes is very low indeed). This would mean that unless you have access to a well-endowed institutional license, you would have great difficulty accessing the newest chemistry. Hence of course the. publiclibraryofscience.org. Is this a widespread trend amongst the readership of this list? If so, it would certainly mean the extinction of paper in a period covering perhaps less than ten years, a remarkable feat. -- Henry Rzepa. Imperial College, Chemistry Dept. +44 0778 626 8220 +44 020 7594 5804 (Fax) chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. To post to list: mailto:chemweb@ic.ac.uk Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; (un)subscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk) chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. To post to list: mailto:chemweb@ic.ac.uk Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; (un)subscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)