As always, thank you for your responses, especially your comments. But if the Web is sufficient, I will delete the list processor archive. I will decide in about one week. This seemed like a good deal until I looked at the contract we were required to sign. As we are a land grant institution, our library and micro computing facilities are open to anyone in the Commonwealth.
Prices rise as publishers seek maximum value, i.e. profit, from their products.
The value of journals to consumers is determined not by library purchasers or readers but principally by academics acting as authors. Simply, these two parties have over this period reached the same conclusion about valuations and the market has proved quite sustainable commercially on this basis. The problem, though, is obvious. Journal prices will never go backwards. Any piece of elastic has its breaking point.