Uhhhh. Color me stupid, but I thought copyright *by definition* provides
an intentional monopoly for the copyright holder...and it *is* regulated,
is it not??
On a practicle level (and at a university where you are supporting
professors and researchers) I am sure there are situations where items are
not fungible BUT for the librarian building a collection (as opposed to
filling a request) the option is always there. Not everybody has the same
constraints and for those who don't the only thing that a large corporation
understands is when you vote with your $$$.
Jed, Gary is right, imo. When a prof here is teaching, say, a course on
Hamlet, and he wants me to purchase the Zeffirelli version of Hamlet, he
does NOT want me to say, "Whoops. That's a WARNER title, and we're avoiding
Warner titles. I'll just get him the Ethan Hawke version because it's put
out by Miramax." It doesn't work that way. Academic types tend to know
exactly what they want or need, and substitution just doesn't make SENSE.
In fact, even in the "just collection development" situation you mention
here, I don't think it's all that common to find that multiple sources
cover the same subject matter or, even if they do, that they are unlikely
to provide nearly identical content or perspective.
Susan Albrecht
Susan Albrecht
Acquisitions Coordinator
Wabash College Lilly Library
Crawfordsville, IN
x6216
albrechs@wabash.edu
*********************************************************************************
"If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice."--Neil Peart
*********************************************************************************
---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/pipermail/videolib/attachments/253ce33b/attachment.htm
---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--