Stanford keeps flipping publishers the bird.

The latest from Stanford has their faculty senate taking a stance:

1. against big deals


2. for faculty working (editing, supporting, etc.) on low-cost journals


3. for canceling expensive titles


4. against senior faculty submitting work to expensive journals.


5. and most forcefully:
   
   for canceling journals that are more expensive than their content warrants, with the bonus statement of: "attention should be paid to for-profit journals in general and to those published by Elsevier in particular.

When I asked folks here what they thought of Stanford dropping out of ARL, I got the response of 'Well, they never have played well with others.' If this is an example, then I'm all for stealing the other kids' lunch money and pulling dirty tricks at dodgeball. Way to go Stanford! Maybe having a go-it-alone reputation gives you the freedom to say things out loud that other libraries only say behind closed doors.

...cause we've all suggested, after a few drinks, just canceling all the Elsevier journals and seeing what happens.

The home stretch

The end of one presentation is drawing near. Remind me to never try to present at a conference when I'm on the organizing committee.

I wish I could say that we're in the darkroom home stretch as well, but I just got the second plumbing estimate today. We'll be painting shortly, then it will be time for electric and doors. We've decided to scale back the plumbing just a bit (no thermostatically controlled valve) and skip the built-in enlarge stands. They can always be added later on. We just want to get started!

Sadly, L was sick for her birthday. But we did get to pull weeds, eat cake on the deck, and have a pleasant day at home--until she started rolling around on the floor in pain. :(

A local boy

I wonder if someone should share this story with this kid.

(of course, I was going to link to the original Onion story, but it's no longer there. Of course, plenty of people blogged about it when it appeared.

The lecture life: redux

Saw the executive director of Human Rights Watch tonight. He gave a pretty good speech.

I knew I was in the right place when I saw Dancing John there. He's been at all the best concerts that I've attended here so far, and we've stopped and talked to him a few times--we always know that we've picked the hippest venue in town when we see Dancing John.

The fake monk (a library regular--I'm still unsure if he's fake or not: it's just what we call him) and the 9-11 dollar bill guy were there too. I left when the first paranoid questioner started talking about CIA agents wandering the streets of Eugene doing the dirty work of the US Forest Service.

Black helicopters looking for spotted owls you know.

Busy busy.

I've been telling people that I'm 'booked solid' for the next two weeks. I don't think I like using that phrase. I'm neither a dentist nor an airline, therefore I don't have bookings.

Anyway, I'm trying to put together a presentation, wish a friend farewell as she heads overseas (for Europe, not the occupied territories--I also realized recently that I no longer have any friends in the military), prepare a class for spring quarter, and work on 'other duties as assigned.' It feels good to be busy, but I'm not sure how good.

Stanford and ARL

Stanford has withdrawn from the Association of Research Libraries with a rather scathing statement.

I don't usually comment on library stuff like this, but their reasons for withdrawing sound a lot like the reasons I'm not a member of ALA. They also state that they're not going to share the full text of the letter they sent to ARL explaining their decisions, but hope that ARL will share it with its members. Oh, do tell.

I have a feeling that letter is much more polite than a letter that I would send to ALA if I decided to quit.

Anyway, their monetary argument (we pay $20k in dues and feel we're not getting our money's worth) is a good one, and it gets hinted at here once in a while. We talked (briefly, thank god) about withdrawing from CRL recently--the humanists immediately shot that one in the butt. It increasingly looks like all bets are off when it comes to saving money--I only hope that, rather than continuing to cut and cut and cut, that we instead come up with a radical restructuring plan. It would really be for the best if we stopped giving our money to large publishing concerns.