Dear Colleagues - I had eagerly awaited the announcement of the fees for participantion in ARTstor, hoping that this would be an affordable way to offer
access to digital images for my users. I am still recovering from sticker shock after seeing the fees. My institution (a college of about 200 FTE and thus
classified as a "very small" college by ARTstor) would have to pay a one-time fee of $6000 and also a yearly access fee of $3000 (the first 2 years are not
full cost, just 60% & 80%). There are higher fees for various categories of colleges with more than 1000 FTE. But a community college only has to pay a one-
time fee of $1000 and a yearly access fee of $1200. These are fees I could well afford and I really have to wonder why community colleges get such a
wonderful deal. See the complete list at: http://www.artstor.org/participation_info/higher_education_fees.jsp
I am disappointed that ARTstor has devised a fee schedule that is too expensive for my institution. I have sent an email to Barbara Rockenbach (Assistant
Director for Library Relations, ARTstor; email to: [log in to unmask]) to complain about the high fees. If you also feel that these fees are beyond
your budgets, I would urge you to also contact her. I also would ask those of you who will be attending the ARLIS conference (unfortunately I will not be
attending this year) to talk to the ARTstor rep and express your opinions to a live person.
ARTstor stated in their Winter newsletter that "As Artstor grows, we will continue to need advice, criticism, and suggestions so that we can all learn together
about users' needs, software adaptations, image quality standards, metadata standards, and the best approaches to collection-building". At this point I
think they truly need some advice and criticism.
Thank you for letting me rage a bit.
Kathy Heuer
Library Director
College of Visual Arts
394 Dayton Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55102
651.310.0575
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