At this moment, there are 73 staff members from both publishers consisting of assistant editors, copy editors, layout editors, marketing specialists, sales representatives and janitors.  The list of signers from Springer and John Wiley is growing.

One of the assistant editors from John Wiley said “well, no shit Sherlock.  Elsevier made over a billion dollars in profits last year for a rate that exceeds well over 35% of their revenue.  The less money they suck from libraries means those libraries can hand over more money to John Wiley.  I can’t speak for Elsevier, but it’s like we are just printing money over here.”  John Wiley had a profit margin of only 42% for 2011.

A janitor from Springer said that he “was not planning on submitting any scholarly articles to Elsevier at any point in the near future” so it was not that difficult for him to make the pledge.  Because he support the Open Access publishing system, he usually submits his articles on high energy physics to the arXiv, PLoS ONE or the IOP Journal of High Energy Physics. He noted that he is familiar with the Springer based OA journals, but they did not have a good outlet for his research on Chern-Simons-matter theories and M2-branes.  He also noted that “the author-paid OA fees were often too much with my meager janitor wages.”

Today, in a surprise move by the American Library Association (ALA), they announced that as of January 1, 2010, the organization will change their name from the American Library Association to the “Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals”!

The Executive Director of ALA, Keith Michael Fiels, said “If the members of the SLA have failed to take advantage of this awesome proposal, there is no stinkin’ way that we’re going to let that great name pass us by.  We have already contacted SLA Headquarters about transferring the registration of the URLs of ASKPro.org and ASKP.org.”

Most of the leadership of ALA (soon to be called the Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals) have reacted favorably to the change.  James Austin noted that all of the ALA members provide strategic knowledge, either to their organizations or for their patrons.  He asked “Why did it take so long for the ALA to realize this?”  Susan Fernando, a member of the ALA Council, was excited about the impending change.  She said “I will be very proud to put ASKPro on my resume.”

However, there were some minor concerns raised by some of the members.  An anonymous member questioned the name change process.  She said, “Ummm, this wasn’t exactly a bottom up proposal, since I never heard about this until today.  Doesn’t stuff like this need to go through multiple committees?  Didn’t anyone read the by-laws to see how to change the name of ALA? “

Executive Director Fiels responded to the three complaints.  He said “Tough cookies. The name Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals was available, so we took it.”

In fact, the corporation will be giving back ALL of the profits they had garnered over the last 23 years.  How was 23 years arrived at?  He explained that the ARL started their in-depth analysis of the rise of journal prices in 1986, so 23 years seemed to be a good number.

Starting January 1, 2010, thousands of libraries and thousands of individuals will be given a large windfall from the Billions of dollars (with 7% compounded interest) Reed-Elsevier had made off the backs of libraries and other subscribers.  One very large midwestern public university plans to give $32,451,488.07 back to citizens of the state.  A medium sized east coast private university plans to reduce tuition by 21.7% starting with the Fall 2010 enrollment.  A small liberal arts college library will complete their expansion in 2011, and they plan to name the new wing after either Elsevier or Mr. Hommen.  The student body will take a vote later this summer.

Jane Michaelson, a librarian from one of the institutions noted above, said “Well thank God, it is about time they came to their senses.  During this hard economic time, this is very welcome news, indeed.  Now, I will look forward to meeting with their reps at the next library conference.”

To explain this complete reversal, the Chairman explained that he recently finished reading two books, the Starfish and the Spider: the Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations and Here Comes Everybody: the Power of Organizing Without Organizations.  He realized that the company was just too big and centralized. He then compared the journal publishing industry to the music industry that currently has just five big companies.  As we all know, the music industry is in disarray, and he did not want Reed-Elsevier to go through the same shakeup and turmoil.

As of August 1, 2009, many of their websites will be changed to .org’s. In fact, some of these may currently work — reed-elsevier.org, elsevier.org, sciencedirect.org.  He also stated, “I Can’t believe how self-centered we had become; we now want to promote scholarship and scientific research instead of focusing on profits, stock prices, mergers, share holders, etc.  F*ck the share holders.”

The Library Radish learned from an inside source that the “Annoyed Librarian” will be the new Editor of the journal, effective January 1, 2009.  The source noted that “because of his/her great understanding of chaotic events, he/she will be a great asset to the editorial team of the journal.”   While the Annoyed Librarian was initially surprised by the offer, he/she was pleased to accept the new position at Elsevier.  Unfortunately, his/her time blogging for the Library Journal will have to be greatly reduced, but he/she will continue to post new entries on the “Annoyed Librarian” web log from time to time.  He/she claimed to understand chaos to a great extent, but he/she noted that he/she still needed to firm up on the basics of solitons and fractals.  Through the month of December, he/she said that he/she “will be reading about fractal theory and solitons like the dickens!”

In it he states, “Colleagues/ It is with great pleasure that I Announce this Wonderful New Blog so I will now have a single place where I can announce my new Wonderful Blogs! I would also most appreciate learning of Any and All Other Blogs that are set up to announce ones own personal blogs.“

http://myblogthatannouncesmyothernewblogs.blogspot.com/

Mr. McFarlane also created an associated Facebook group so interested librarians can discuss.

Steve Johnson, Vice President of Publishing Services for Haworth Press noted that the journal has established an editorial board with members from many vaunted institutions.  The journal will be published quarterly, but because of difficult technical outsourcing issues, the first issue dated January 2009 will not be available until August of 2011.  He recommends that libraries subscribe now so that all of your microformat researchers will not miss the first important issue.

Institutional subscription Price — $1,379/year

Personal subscription Price — $249/year

Jenny Benstrom, Systems Analyst — “I don’t know about 2.0, but I am waiting for Microsoft to finally release the Web v3.1″

Steven Smith, 2nd Grade Teacher — “Speaking of Web2.0 tools, I was addicted to Scrabulous in FB and now ‘they’ took it away from me –  I blame secret government spies for this move!”

Jack Fuller, CEO of a $3.8 Billion Corporation — “When will the local public library finally load Second Life software?  I want to pretend that I am a pretty little butterfly flying around in space.”

Susan Lavin, Systems Analyst — “What?  Libraries are now using games to drive in traffic?  What crazy thing will they do next – let people check out DVDs?”

Steven Crossette, Fifth Grade Teacher — “Yes, I think games are a great idea.  I’ve often had my students play a rousing game of Tic-Tac-Toe to get their creative juices flowing. “

John Forrester, Corporate Sales — “As a salesperson, I know how important it will be for the younger generation to learn teamwork skills.  I just have absolutely no idea how silly little games will teach them THAT!”

Dr. Robert Brumble from Northumbria University will be the managing editor of the journal.  He is looking forward to article submissions and discussions concerning a wide range of topics for many years to come.  Some of the articles that are already in the pipeline are:  “Microfilm or Microfiche: Which is Better for Books”, “The Proper Use and Care of Mechanical Typewriters in Library Settings”,  and “Card Catalogs: Not for Wimps”.

He notes that the journal will only be published in print with small print runs and at a high cost.  This will create great “exclusivity” for the authors since not many libraries (nor their patrons for that matter) will be able to get their hands on the articles.  He notes that “those few subscribers and readers will know they have a rare item in their hands.”  Other features of the journal that help to enhance exclusivity include: no indexing of the journal in any format, the publisher will not allow authors to upload pre- or post-print versions of their articles in any format, copyright clearance costs are substantial so only select few libraries can afford to purchase articles, and there are severe interlibrary loan restrictions.

Dr. Brumble recommends this journal for any reader or librarian who longs for the “good ‘ol days”.