Message-Id: <199601311531.JAA03491@library.wustl.edu> Date: Wed, 31 Jan 1996 10:26:00 -0500 From: "Lori A. Schwabenbauer, Subject: Re: WebPAC and ALS/Vmark licenses To: Multiple recipients of list WEBCAT-L <mailto:WEBCAT-L@WUVMD.WUSTL.EDU>
>I was a skeptic of PAC for Windows, but have a very different reaction to
>the WebPAC product now under development (this after seeing Sirsi's Web
>product demo'd--which looks far more advanced than ALS, at this point.) But
>I do have some trouble imagining how ALS is going to price this product
>without some drastic change in their current ALS and VMark per port license
>fees.
>Our service area is over half a million in population, with a high
>percentage of computers in homes and--to date--12 local Internet providers.
>With WebPAC in place, it's easy to imagine simultaneous remote users
>numbered in the hundreds. At the same time, our in-house number of ports is
>now 260, and probably would top out at under 500.
>Each library now contributes a port fee for what they are using. How`could
>we afford to support all those remote users under the current per port
>licensing fees, and how could our libraries have a prayer of not only
>picking up that cost, but dividing it equitably?
>
> Jerry Kuntz
> Electronic Resources Consultant
> Ramapo Catskill Library System
> mailto:jkuntz@mhv.net
DRA has DRAweb, which I have yet to test, but I'm sure it has similarities to the abovementioned products. However, our concern about licensing is the same. DRA tells me that whether the user is on the Web, telnetting, in-house, dialup, or whatever, if they're in our catalog they're using a license. Additional licenses are costly (as I'm sure they are for every vendor). But we want libraries to be at the forefront of universal information access - and that's going to have to include easy, inexpensive access to library catalogs via the Internet.
What about it, vendors? Are you willing to re-think licensing prices and configurations in the name of progress? If we have to pay the same prices for users on the Internet, who may want to access our library resources at any time from anywhere in the world, as for our own in-house and local users, we'll have to limit access - and that would limit our usefulness, and ultimately our relevance in the information universe. And that won't do the vendors any good either!
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Lori A. Schwabenbauer "Opinions of author unless Supervisor, Automation Services otherwise stated." Camden County Library 203 Laurel Road "It is more blessed Voorhees, NJ 08043 USA to SEND than to 609-772-1636 x3336 RECEIVE." fax 609-772-6105 --FAX-MAN mailto:lori@camden.lib.nj.us
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