Re: Is it time to stop printing journals?

I work as a publisher in an area where many of the journals
are 
membership journals and the members often do not have access
to 
an academic library. These are specialist dentists who do
not 
write papers for learned journals but need to keep up with
the 
research. In Europe such people seem to be able to access an

e-version but there is a general view in the US that the US

equivalents need print. I wonder if this is one of those
areas 
where generalisations do not work and one size does not fit
all 
or are the publishers or rather the learned societies who
partner 
with them are being too conservative in their approach to
saving 
money? ----- Original Message ----- From: "Greg
Tananbaum" 
<gtananbaumgmail.com> To: <liblicense-llists.yale.edu> Sent: 
Friday, March 30, 2007 12:49 AM Subject: Re: Is it time to
stop 
printing journals?

> Scott Plutchak from UAB writes in his blog response:
>
> "We certainly don't need to keep the print to
satisfy our user
> base.  Two years ago we stopped getting any print for
our
> ScienceDirect titles.  I did not get a single question,
comment,
> or expression of concern from faculty or students. 
We've reached
> the point where librarians tend to worry a lot more
about the
> print than the people who use our libraries do."
>
> I am curious to hear whether this is a commonly held
sentiment.
> In other words, do the librarians on this list have the
sense
> that their patrons are operating in a post-print world
(not in
> the OA/PMC/Battle Royale sense of the term, but meaning
have we
> outgrown print)?  If so, this would be a remarkable
shift, and a
> remarkably quick one.  Certainly when I helped launch
The
> Berkeley Electronic Press in 2000, print was
sacrosanct.  The
> idea of a viable electronic-only journal publisher was
met with
> feedback running the wide gamut from skepticism to
scorn.  If
> this equation has indeed flipped in a matter of a
half-dozen or
> so years, this ranks as one of the most important
periods in
> scholarly communication history.
>
> Best, Greg
>
> Greg Tananbaum
> gtananbaumgmail.com