For others, the debate is misplaced. They argue the problem is that society has not been subsidizing library resources in proportion to the funds it apportions to scientific research. If the institutions who believe the scholarly information is worth producing believed it was worth disseminating, they would do so. And yet, evidence remains that the profits of some commercial publishers may be excessive. These are already paid indirectly by subsidies such as academic department costs.
Scholars have no direct incentive to care about the costs of journals to libraries.
In their appeal to the academic user, journals compete on prestige, not cost. Proposed solutions, then, are either to have scholars reclaim ownership of the scholarly communication process through electronic publishing, or to produce a more competitive communication system. One way or another, it seems that the old scholarly communication system is dying, and a new, electronic one is struggling to be born. What you can do Get informed. The above is only a summary of a complex subject.