Price Pricing of electronic resources is vastly different from that of print. Prices can be based on user populations, print equivalents, packages, historical purchasing patterns, budgets, and those ever-confusing consortial deals. The balance of print and e-purchases for abstracts and indexes has calmed down, with a slow but steady decrease in print subscriptions in favor of their electronic equivalents. It will happen faster for the journal world, partly because the indexing tools already exist, and the capability of linking directly to articles will encourage use of e-journals. Then there are the hybrid digital collections that are available for purchase.
Consortial pricing can confuse the picture even more.
Often publishers will provide consortial advantages based on the number of institutions involved, or on the number of FTE enrolled in academic institutions. Even with those consortia that allow flexible membership participation for each resource, there is still some loss of control to gain price advantages. It will work well for less-used titles. Scholarly Communication Libraries face the task of providing information in both print and electronic media. Consider how the world of electronic resources impacts users.