I too agree with Louise's comments but am wondering if any list 
members have different "Terms and Conditions" to us at Deakin.  Ours state :

5) Online subscriptions provide access for the period January 1 to 
December 31, 2006, and are not tied to the availability of any 
specific issues of any journal.  Annual renewals are required for 
continued service.

6) Online subscriptions include access to current volumes for 
subscribed journals(s) as well as archived issues for subscribed journals(s).

No mention of  "Annual renewals are required for continued access to 
the current plus four years"

cheers
Gabriel


At 01:17 AM 13/03/2007, you wrote:
>Dear Patricia (copied to the list as your message was sent out on it to
>all members)
>
>I have read your message, posted to the list a few weeks ago, with
>increasing disappointment and concern, and after some consideration would
>like to comment on several points.
>
>1.  You quote that there is an 'established publishers' standard' that
>allows access to online material for the current year plus four archive
>years.  Not so.  The vast majority of publishers include an online archive
>back to years in the late 1990s; some are even more generous.  Few have
>adopted rolling archives, such as the one introduced by INFORMS, and those
>who have are more than aware that it is not a practice welcomed by the
>library or academic community.
>
>2.  You imply that the rolling archive policy was always made transparent
>by INFORMS in its online terms and conditions.  Not true - if this was the
>case it would have been generally known.  The fact that, as a previous
>message by Randy Kiefer states, INFORMS was unable to enforce this policy
>due to technical restrictions, means little if we never knew about it in
>the first place!  I was also more than a little dismayed to read that the
>rolling archive policy had been adopted as 'that is what librarians
>want'.  Ask any librarian and I really do not think the consensus will be
>that the loss of a year's online content each year is what we want. Your
>comments on the technical problems previous to the Highwire move being 'a
>challenge' hardly help.
>
>3.  You state below that 'The rolling access meshes with access to
>embargoed content through aggregators such as EBSCO, ProQuest and JSTOR.'
>Irrelevant, surely?  We are talking about subscribers to your journals,
>not subscribers of these databases.  Embargo arrangements with databases
>are quite different.
>
>4.  Now to your third paragraph, and the crux of the matter. You state
>that 'INFORMS will indeed be introducing an archival product in the near
>future that will cover all issues back to volume 1, issue 1 for all our
>journals ... Archive I will include issues from 1985 to the end of the
>coverage of a current subscription. Every year, the oldest year in the
>current subscription will become part of Archive I. This product will have
>a one-time purchase price and a modest annual maintenance fee.'  Let me
>get this straight in my mind.  Each current subscription includes four (or
>this year, five) years of back access.  At the end of that subscription
>the earliest year included in a current subscription moves into a large
>archive which has to be purchased as a whole.  Call me a bit cynical but
>isn't this effectively removing the content from view unless an
>institution has the funds to purchase a whole archive?
>
>5. Back to that rolling archive policy.  I quote from your message
>below: 'Once the archives are available for purchase, our subscription
>policy will revert to our current year plus four years access format. This
>policy was developed by our board, whose members were primarily academics,
>when INFORMS went online in 1999.'  Now things become a little clearer.
>The policy was developed largely by academics, but not made public to
>subscribers.  Institutions who subscribe do so to support learning,
>teaching and research: i.e. to support the work of academics.  I question
>whether the INFORMS board clearly understood the implications of their
>policy; or was it thought to be of little importance until the access
>COULD be technically restricted?  Sort of 'what they don't know can't hurt
>them?'  I can assure you that academics who use the content often think it
>appears by magic and feel extremely short-changed if any part of a
>subscription is suddenly removed; as they should, as publications are only
>purchased and maintained to support their key areas of study.
>
>I'd like to ask if others feel as strongly as I do about this matter.  I
>have already raised the rolling archive policy change with my senior
>colleagues at Leeds and they are considering a discussion at a higher
>level at SCONUL on this and other e-access issues which affect the
>provision of a high quality, reliable service to our customers.
>
>With best wishes
>Louise
>
>Louise Cole
>Electronic Resources Team Leader
>University of Leeds
>Leeds
>LS2 9JT
>
>tel: 0113 34 35502
>email: [log in to unmask]
>
>co-owner lis-e-journals
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Patricia S. Shaffer writes:
>
>On January 10, Louise Cole of the University of Leeds expressed her
>concern abut INFORMS' rolling archive policy. Her concerns are serious and
>deserve an explanation, as well as appropriate action on our part.
>INFORMS current subscriptions, following an established publishers'
>standard, cover access for the current year plus four archive years (2007-
>2003). Our online terms and conditions have always stated that INFORMS
>provides online service with a service period from January 1st to December
>31st of the subscription year. Annual renewals are required for continued
>access to the current plus four years. The rolling access meshes with
>access to embargoed content through aggregators such as EBSCO, ProQuest
>and JSTOR. INFORMS has never restricted participation to specific
>aggregators, to ensure the broadest possible access to our archival
>content prior to the period covered in current subscriptions.
>The challenge has been to maintain those rules of access in place with our
>journal hosts; unfortunately, we were largely unsuccessful until we moved
>to HighWire.
>
>INFORMS faced a new challenge this year. The recent transition to HighWire
>as the host for INFORMS, where these rules are now actually in effect,
>would have discontinued access to the 2002 journal year to all 2006
>subscribers after our grace period of February 15th. 2007-only subscribers
>are limited to issues beginning in 2003. Given the change in hosts and the
>inconsistent enforcement of the rules before moving to HighWire, we are
>setting a special policy for this year. INFORMS will extend access to
>current plus five years for 2007 subscriptions (2007-2002). There will be
>no loss of access to 2002 issues for 2007 renewals and new subscribers.
>
>As Ms. Cole points out, INFORMS will indeed be introducing an archival
>product in the near future that will cover all issues back to volume 1,
>issue 1 for all our journals. This archive will offer hundreds of issues
>never before available electronically directly through INFORMS to
>libraries. The metadata is being rekeyed and organized to allow more in-
>depth searches at the keyword and abstract level. INFORMS plans to
>introduce the archives in two parts. Archive I will include issues from
>1985 to the end of the coverage of a current subscription. Every year, the
>oldest year in the current subscription will become part of Archive I.
>This product will have a one-time purchase price and a modest annual
>maintenance fee. Archive II will cover issues from 1984-1952, and will
>offer the balance of issues from the six oldest INFORMS journals. Archive
>II will have a modest one-time fee to cover the administrative costs. Both
>archives will be hosted at HighWire and tracked in the usage reports, and
>will be available for abstract/keyword searches. Pricing and release dates
>are not yet finalized. INFORMS will publish this information when it is
>available.
>
>Once the archives are available for purchase, our subscription policy will
>revert to our current year plus four years access format. This policy was
>developed by our board, whose members were primarily academics, when
>INFORMS went online in 1999. The business rules are based on the
>observation that our most valuable research material is found in the
>current five years of journal articles. As noted above, the backfile
>articles are also available from several aggregators.
>
>Feel free to contact us with your concerns. If you have strong opinions
>about INFORMS journals, we'll even welcome you to an INFORMS library
>panel. Direct your comments to
>
>Patricia S. Shaffer
>Director of Publications
>Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS)
>(443) 757-3500 ext. 570
>[log in to unmask]     <http://www.informs.org>

_____________________________________________________________________________
Gabriel Boyle, Information Resources Licence Coordinator, Library
+ Deakin University Waterfront Campus Geelong Victoria 3217 Australia.
( Phone: 03 5227 8228 International: +61 3 5227 8228
( Fax: 03 5227 8000 International: +61 3 5227 8000
: E-mail: [log in to unmask]
: Website: http://www.deakin.edu.au
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