Some random thoughts.

I have just registered with a private internet service provider because our
campus modem pool is inadequate to allow me easy access to the internet
using a SLIP connection.  I believe more or our users will also be making
this choice because the computing facility on campus will not likely be
able to meet their demands.  We also have residency training programs in
rural areas (200-300 miles away) where our computing facility does not
provide any access, and so these people make their network connections to
our campus via private ISP's.
In these cases most of us are using PPP which, as I understand it,
dynamically assigns an IP address as we make a connection.  Thus, our IP
address changes each time we make a connection.  So IP and even domain name
access would restrict our remote users from accessing these products off
campus.  Isn't that what the publisher wants?

We subscribe to several electronic journals which control access via IP
address or range of IP addresses, including Journal of Biological
Chemistry, the Institute of Physics medical journals, etc.  They don't seem
to have the same security paranoia as the Elsevier computer folks.  Maybe
they know something Elsevier doesn't, or maybe they just don't have as much
$$ to loose as Elsevier.  Seems to me Elsevier needs to loosen up and get
their journals on the internet, or some of the "upstarts" are going to get
so far ahead of them no one will want their articles published by Elsevier.

Our campus is also considering contracting out more of its computing
support, including remote internet access, to commercial providers.  One
element of their RFP is that a specific range of IP addresses be reserved
for our user accounts which we would be able to report to publishers and
others as addresses within our domain, so that when access to a service is
limited by IP address our users will be validated whether they are using a
campus computer or connecting remotely.

There are ways around this "problem" that can be solved with some creativity.
Danny Jones

Daniel H. Jones (jones@uthscsa.edu)
Assistant Library Director for Collection Development
Briscoe Library
University of Texas Health Science Center
7703 Floyd Curl Drive
San Antonio, Texas, USA  79284-7940
voice:  210-567-2400    fax:  210-567-2490