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It is scandalous if the copyright libraries are ditching publications they are legallty entitled to demand from publishers. They should be under an obligation to return unwanted items. Some publications go out of print but may not warrant a reprint! Perhaps we should include a return address slip with a polite request that it is used for the return of unwanted items? Bill ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bill Forster, University of Hertfordshire Press, LRC, College Lane, HATFIELD, Hertfordshire AL10 9AD, UK. Web catalogue: http:/www.herts.ac.uk/UHPress ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tel: +44 1707-284681 Fax: +44 1707-284666 E-mail: [log in to unmask] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ On Sat, 4 Apr 1998, John Sumsion wrote: > It is misleading for Margaret Blackburn to suggest that small societies > "lose the revenue on 6 copies". They will not sell any extra copies if the > legal deposit prequirement is removed. What they may avoid is the marginal > cost of printing an extra six copies and the cost of posting them to the > deposit libraries or their agencies. This will usually be a much smaller > amount than the 'revenue' on six copies. > > I am concerned about another aspect of legal deposit. In my time at LISU > and at PLR - small publishers equivalent to local societies - we > religiously complied with the law and despatched six copies of our research > reports. On checking the catalogues of the deposit libraries the typical > result is to find only one or two of them holding the copies deposited: in > some cases none at all. What has happened to the copies deposited and why > are they not available for interested researchers and for posterity? > Admittedly library statistics is a small 'niche' interest: but who is to > say what future researchers may need to illuminate the literary and library > history of the 1980s and 1990s? > > John Sumsion - Senior Fellow in Department of Information and Library > Studies, Loughborough University, Loughborough, Leics. LE11 3TU [UK] > Tel +44 (0)1509 223060 or 223052 Fax +44 (0)1509 223053 > > Home address: The Granary, 29 Main Street, Rotherby, Melton Mowbray, Leics. > LE14 2LP. Tel: +44 (0)1664 434485; Fax [& study tel] +44 (0)1664 434918 > > > > %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%