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Stanford has withdrawn from the Association of Research Libraries with a rather scathing statement.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