On the one hand, print is dying. - Catherine Pellegrino

On another hand, we don't have a good infrastructure for e-reference books (at MPOW) (yet). - Catherine Pellegrino

On another hand, we did use it -- in print -- somewhat often (where "somewhat often" means "two or three times a year, and occasionally it would actually have the information that we needed.") - Catherine Pellegrino

On another hand, I sort of don't want to reward PQ for scooping up government info and packaging it for sale. - Catherine Pellegrino

On another hand, they have every right to do so and to be compensated, appropriately, for doing so. - Catherine Pellegrino

Yeah, in this case they've got us by the throat, I think. We need the statistical abstract, and now they're providing the ONLY way to access that kind of information. Sure, the raw information is out there, but you have to be a very sophisticated researcher to reproduce what's in the statistical abstract. - lris

running out of hands :) they scooped it up, yes, but they did save it from going away so ... - Christina Pikas

I just checked and the print is $179. I don't know what we paid for the previous print edition, but $179 doesn't seem incredibly outrageous. - Catherine Pellegrino

Re hands: I am Kalibrarian. :D - Catherine Pellegrino

What is this "print" of which you speak? The Statistical Abstract wasn't funded and is decommissioned. - lris

http://www.bernan.com/Statist... - Catherine Pellegrino

Ah. Still ProQuest. I see. - lris

Yeah, Bernan has always been the one to put together the print edition, which is what we've always bought. Now they're just contracting with PQ, who are the ones collecting the data now? Or something. - Catherine Pellegrino

I'm a big fan of data in electronic formats that can be manipulated. How about doing a trial of the PQ e-thing and see if you can import the data sets into Excel or other statistical analysis tools? If so, then I'll bet your researchers will use it more than they used the print. - Royce's favorite Anna

Our tax dollars at work being monetized by the private sector. - barbara fister from iPhone

Bleah. - Meg V. Meg

Poor Statistical Abstract. - Laura H.

No No... it would be better if it went totally away. /snark - awd

I would/will buy it in print. It's nice to have an almanac-style reference book where you can feel like you literally have your hands around a big chunk of the information you might need, along with the pointers to the data sources that the abstract draws from. - Steele Lawman

Yeah, we have always bought it in print, and I am advocating for doing so again. Our coll-dev librarian wants to get it online, for obvious reasons, but I honestly don't think we'd use it as much if we had to remember where and how to get to it, instead of just reaching for it on the ready-ref shelf. O HAI, I'm a 1980's librarian, how are you this morning? - Catherine Pellegrino

I still think you should look at a trial of the online before you dismiss it. - Royce's favorite Anna

I think the online could be much more useful - Catherine, you said up top (which may have been a quote from your director's email - I'm not sure) "On another hand, we did use it -- in print -- somewhat often (where "somewhat often" means "two or three times a year, and occasionally it would actually have the information that we needed.")". Honestly, if I was only using the print 2-3 times a year, I don't know that I'd advocate for buying the print OR the electronic unless I could do the trial and see where it could specifically be used. I can see ways for the online version to become much more useful - and much more used - than the print ever was. Pointers to the data sources? What about links out to the data sources when possible? - ellbeecee

I used to start a session on reference books with "if I was stuck on desert island with just ONE BOOK..." and it was, sniff, that chunky little number-fest. We used it a lot. - barbara fister

Flipping the argument around - since now it will be handled by a for-profit publisher, perhaps some value-added options (like searchable electronic access, with bells and whistles) will be added, to enhance its saleability? I plan to trial the e-version. - Louise "Weezy" Alcorn