Hi Sandy,

I think you need to look at the individual price increases, rather than
lumping them all together.  Here is some quick research on the titles you
mention:

Harvard Law Review
For years, we've paid about $50, most recently $55 last year.  Now, our
cost is $200. I suspect HLR has instituted an individual vs institution
subscription price recently, though I can't tell for sure from their web
site; if you have access to the actual issues, compare the statement on the
verso of the title page.  However, the web site also says that "Nonprofit
institutions may receive a discounted annual subscription for $95."  My
guess is that your subscription agent and my subscription agent are unaware
of this special price, and should be made aware of it.  See
http://www.harvardlawreview.org/order.shtml#subscriptions for more details.

Personnel Psychology
I think this title just switched to Blackwell Publishing; they only have
v.57:no.3 (2004:Sept.) up on their web site, and I seem to recall it used
to be published without the benefit of a commercial publisher.  We've been
paying $70/year for several years now.  Prices are now at
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/subs.asp?ref=0031-5826.  For an
institution, the cost for 2005 will be around $300, depending upon what
kind of subscription you want (premium print plus online, standard print
plus online, or online only).

We don't subscribe to the other title you mention, so I can't comment on
that one in terms of our own price history.  Based on these two examples, I
think you need to look at changes in publisher and changes in subscription
models.  That should give you a clearer picture of why certain titles are
increasing more than you might expect.

Kim
_______________________________________
Kim Maxwell
Serials Acquisitions Librarian
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MIT Libraries, Room 14E-210
77 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
phone: 1-617-253-7028
fax:   1-617-253-2464
email: kmaxwell@mit.edu

At 04:39 PM 11/16/2004 -0500, you wrote:
>Hi Serialsters:
>
>I just need to ask -- has anybody else noticed that some subscription
>prices have skyrocketed to over 100% or higher on their invoices?  I
>just wanted to confirm that everyone else has seen these as well i.e.
>Harvard Law Review, Marriage and Family Review, Personnel Psychology and
>I have a growing list I could put up here.
>
>I am used to price increases of 7-10 % but this is just crazy --?  Is
>anybody else experiencing higher than usual increases on subscriptions?
>Are the publishers having a free for all now?
>
>Sandy Srivastava
>
>Sandhya D. Srivastava
>Assistant Professor
>Serials Librarian
>Hofstra University
>Axinn Library
>123 Hofstra University
>Hempstead, New York 11550
>Telephone: (516) 463 - 5959
>Fax: (516) 463 - 6438
>Email: librsds@hofstra.edu <mailto:librsds@hofstra.edu>