5.0590 CDROM Prices & Scholars (1/19)

Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Tue, 14 Jan 1992 17:49:46 EST

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 5, No. 0590. Tuesday, 14 Jan 1992.

Date: Tue, 7 Jan 92 04:16:24 PST
From: cbf@athena.berkeley.edu (Charles Faulhaber)
Subject: Re: 5.0571 CETEDOC CDROM of Christian Latin Texts (1/88)

While I am delighted to see the CETEDOC texts available in CD-ROM
versions, I urge the publishers to come up with some pricing scheme
which will allow individual scholars to acquire the disks.

I understand the necessity of at least making enough money to keep the
series going, but I think that there are enough of us out here willing
and able to spend $400-$500 for a single disk who would find it very
difficult to spend $1000 or more, which is what the half-price offer
amounts to.

Other publishers, of course, are even worse. Chadwick-Healey is asking
$45,000 for the Patrologia Latina with no provision for individual users
while MLA apparently sees the annual bibliography only as a cash cow to
support other--infinitely less useful--programs. It effectively prices
individuals and even academic departments out of the market with a
$1500 annual charge.

Charles Faulhaber
UC Berkeley