UK Parliament's STM Inquiry Continues: Librarians "Wimps"?
-- Library Journal, 5/12/2004
The prickly exchanges so common in Parliament were again on full display in the UK Science and Technology Committee's STM inquiry. The most recent oral evidence session, held on April 21 and available in just-released uncorrected transcripts, shows that, despite some tough, baited questions, librarians and researchers did an excellent job in pressing the library community's concerns in the STM publishing realm. Sharp-tongued Chairman Ian Gibson wasted no time, kicking off the session with a slew of provocative questions. He questioned point blank whether there was truly a "crisis" in STM publishing or whether librarians were in fact "a bunch of wimps" for not better promoting their needs to campus administrators. He also questioned whether libraries in the digital age truly needed "those vast ranges of buildings that you have now" and whether libraries were operating efficiently. Lynne Brindley, CEO of the British Library, bristled at the suggestion that librarians were wimps.
"That is an unacceptable comment," she told Gibson. "We have coped with 43 percent inflation over five years in journals, which has meant an additional £2 million cost, and we have had to find that from internal efficiency gains." Brindley then took a jab at publishers who often use nondisclosure clauses to hide negotiation terms: "We have done that very transparently in a way that might be suggested to publishers."
