College and Research Libraries By ROBERT BINGHAM DOWNS Problems of German Periodicals FOR AT LEAST the past half century science and technology in America and else- where have ·leaned heavily on and been pro- foundly influenced by the work of German scientists. The chief medium <;>f communi- cation, naturally, has been German publica- tions, and particularly periodical literature. For an interim in the First World War, research workers in the United States were deprived of these publications·, and the loss was keenly felt~ Following the war the ·Germans gradually ·re-established their prestige in the scientific world, and their journals again became consid~red indispens- able by ch~mists, physicists, biologists, and other scientists everywhere. The question of cost, with which the present article is primarily concerned, does not appear to have become a serious issue until about I924, after the· period of wild inflation in Ger- many . and the stabilization <;>f the mark, though · there · were · occasional complaints concerning the instability of prices in the · inflation years. · So far as the present wiiter's investiga- tions have been able to determine, · the first formal action protesting the prices of Ger- man books and periodicals was taken by the Medical Library Association at a meeting on June IO, 1924. A committee, composed of Charles Frankenberger, ]. Christian Bay, and Joseph Wilson, brought in a resolution expressing disapproval of German publish- ers' "unreasonable and unjustifiable charges for their publications to foreign subscribers and especially discriminating against Ameri- can subscribers." It was recommended that purchases be discontinued until a more equi- JULY, 1947 table policy was adopted. The resolution . was approved unanimously. 1 A prompt reac.tion was received from the German publishers' association, Deutscher Verlegerverein. In a letter to the M(idical Library Association, dated Oct. I I, ! I924, a representative of the German publishers denied there were any differences between prices to German and to foreign subscribers and maintained that German books and periodicals were nQ more expensive, and in some instances were cheaper, than similar publications in England and America. Undaunted, the American committee stuck to its guns, repeating its charge of exorbitant prices, at least on t'he P.art of cer- tain German publishers, and pointing out that the new plan adopted by l7irchow's Archiv and other journals, i.e., of having no established number of issues or fixed sub- . scription rate, caused increases in some in- . stances of several hundred per cent in the annual cost to libraries. 2 In I 928 English librarians, led by Wil- frid Bonser of Birmingham University, en- tered the fray. In response to a communi- cation from Baini Prashad, of the Zoologi- cal Survey of India, objecting to the exces- sive prices of German scientific journals, Dr. Bonser published a list of physiological and chemical journals, comparing annual costs of British, American, German, and other European periodicals. It was shown that the German titles were from three to" f~ur times as high a~ similar English pub- 1 Medical Library Association Bulletin 14:4, July 19 24. 2 M edical L i brary Association Bulletin 14:39-42, October 1924-January 1925; 15:23-27, October 1925. 303 lications and, in the field of physiology, cost more than all the other countries combined. As remedies, Dr. Bonser proposed more rigorous editing to reduce quantity and thereby costs or, as a last resort, cancellation of subscriptions. He reported that at the International Physiological Congress in Stockholm in I 926 a suggestion · had been made for the German physiologists to do their own printing to reduce prices. At the same meeting German editors promised to try to cut down the length of _published ar- ticles.3 . Pearl Study A mildly dissenting voice was raised by a scientist, Raymond Pearl, in 1926, on the basis of his study of the cost of biological books from various countries. Dr. Pearl concluded that the per page cost of German books in the .field of biology wa_s less than either the English or American, though substantially higher than the French. ·His investigation, however, _was limiteq to books and did not consider serial publi~ations. Furthermore, in subsequent repor.t:s for 1927 and 1928, Dr. Pearl discovered a "consis- . tent and steady increase in the average price per page" of commercially published Ger- man biological books. 4 · The Medical Library Association and Bonser reports were the opening skirmishes in what soon developed into a major engage- ment, in which library associations, scien- tific societies, bookdealers, publishers' or- ganizations, and even governme_nts partici- pated. Before r·eviewing the ac;tions of these groups, however, it would b~ well to . look at the background, and see what was 8 Bonser, Wilfrid. "Prices of Periodical Scientific Publications." Nature 121 :sJ8· .~Q, Apr. 7. 1928;. and idem, "The Cost of German Biological Periodicals." Library Association Record 6:252-56, December 192'8. 4 Pearl, Raymond. "The Cost of Biological Books in 1926." Quarterly Review of Biology r :6o6-o8, October 19z6; idem, "The Cost of Biological Books in 1928." ·Quarterly Review vf Biology 3 :6oo-o2, December 1928. responsible for the controversial situation. Several · factors accounted for the dis- proportionately high charges made by the Germans. Foremost, perhaps, was the practice of swelling the size of the journals by the inclusion of doctoral dissertations, published in full, and of other ·monographs or Festschriften appearing as supplemen- tary volumes, all of which added · to the expense of production. Second, was the custom of paying a per page rate to authors of scientific articles, thus encouraging a writer ·to pad his contribution by such de- vices as long historical preambles and philo- sophical discussions, already familiar to his readers, before arriving at the meat of the matter. The salaries of editors were also fixed by the amount of material published. These methods were approved by the pub- lishers, who . were thereby enabled to set higher prices for their publications. An- other usage, a cause of many complaints, was the failure, previously referred to on the part of the publishers, to establish fixed subscription rates for many periodicals. Each part or each volume was priced sepa- rately when issued. A subscriber • could, therefore, never estimate exactly, or even approximately, how much a particular title would cost in any given year. Several vol- umes of ·Festschriften, Erganzungsbade, Sonderhafte, Beihefte, or Abhandlungen might be added unexpectedly, doubling the amount' a library had allowed in its budget for the title. Furthermore, some supple- mentary parts had scarc_ely any relation to the journals they supplemented. As one complainant stated, "the numb~r of volumes printed annually is gauged by the capacity of subscribers to absorb the output without too much indignation or open p~otest."5 Finally; abnormally large trade discounts, 6 Robert, Alfred L. "The Comparative Cost of Medical Journals." Medical Library Association Bulle- tin 20:140·55, April 1932. 304 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES amounting to 25 per cent, added to costs. All the German publishing policies cited were contrary to those followed in the United States and England. Each had the effect of increasing prices. Direct protests to German publishers' associations and to individual publishers were met either with defenses of the existing order of things or with promises of reforms which usu~lly ' faile~ to materialize. In the flush years of the late twenties, with money plentiful, relatively speaking, libraries were able to carry the heavy finan- cial burden imposed by the German jour- nals. After the arrival of the great eco- nomic depression in I 929; however, the situation soon became intolerable. Discussion at 1931 Conference Following up the 1928 Bonser study, Charles H. Brown and Alfred L. Robert supplied the critics with additional factual . ammunition. At the 193_1 A.L.A. confer- ence Mr. Brown discussed the "Cost of Subscriptions to Current Foreign Periodi- cals," comparing the annual subscription costs . of fourteen German periodicals for 1924-25 and 1930 and revealing the "alarm- ing" increases which had taken place dur- ing this period. He introduced a resolution, adopted by the Administrators Round Table, deploring the high prices, because ex- cessive costs would reduce the purchase and l!Se of German scientific publications in this country, and recommending that the A.L.A. Book Buying Committee intercede with appropriate organizations in Germany. 6 Later in the year Mr. Brown published a report on the problem as it affected his own library, Iowa State College. Current periodical subscriptions, nearly exclusively in science and technology, he re.ported, rose from $8,000 per year in 1925 to $18,000 in 8 A.L.A. Bulletin 25 :s I9, September I93 I. JULY, 1947 1931, an increase attributable almost en- tirely to the cost of German periodicals. For a group of fifty German, French, Eng- lish, and American periodicals, selected as most valuable for scientific research, the average annual subscription price of the German titles in 1930 was more than six times as high as the English, seven times the American, and eight times the French. On a per page basis, the discrepancies were not quite so striking, though still wide ; the German journals averaged $3.78 per printed page, as contrasted . with $L37 · for the English, $.82 for the American, and $1.17 for the French. As possible solutions, the author suggested some cancellations of subscriptions, interlibrary cooperation, re- duction of the length of articles, elimina- tion of poorly written and less important articles, and compensation to the publishers for decreases in cost by increasing the num- ber of subscribers.7 Alfred L. Robert, librarian of Columbia University's College of Physicians and Sur- geons, also contributed an extensive analysis of American, Bri~ish, French, German, and other medical journals, comparing number of volumes, total pages, annual cost, per volume cost, and cost per page for 1930-31. His findings subst~ntiated Mr. Brown's in every respect. Columbia's expenditur~s for German medical periodicals were $3234 for the year, as against $577 for American journals.> with German subscriptions costing five times more than the American, eight times more than the British, and sixteen times more than the French. 8 A similar report with reference to costs, from the John Crerar Library, stated that for I 930 its Germat:l medical periodicals T Brown, Charles H. "A Hazard to Research." Journal of Higher Education 2:420-26, November I93I; also appeared in Library Journal 57 :26I-65, Mar. Is, I932. s Robert, Alfred L., and Schaltenbrand, Hans H. "Comparative Cost of Medical Journals." Medical Library Association Bulletin 2'o:I40-55, April 1932. 305 came to $3000, while all its American jour- nals in the field were only $1000.9 Situation of German Librarians The plight of German librarians and scientists in this ituation was as serious as in other countries. One commentator re- m~rked that prices were so far out of reach of most German subscribers that the publi- cations seemed to be issued to incre~se the foreign prestige of German science rather than for home consumption. Perhaps stim- ulat-ed by protests from abroad, librarians and scientific societies in Germany began exerting pressure on publishers for changes. In the forefront of this movement was Georg Leyh, librarian of the University of Tiibingen. Dr. Leyh urged his colleagues to side with Ame.rican and British librarians campaigning for price reductions, for all had the same interests. As a remedy for the swollen bulk of scientific periodicals, Dr. Leyh proposed elimination of doctoral dissertations, throwing the legal obligation for publication upon the authors and for distribution on the university libraries. 10 A letter from the Medical Library Asso- ciation, in January I93J, to German scien- tific societies and editors asked their co- • operation in bringing about a reduction in the cost of current German periodicals.11 Numerous responses, with almost unani- mous support for the association's objec- tives, were received. A similar communica- tion from the English Linnean Society to the German botanical, zoological, and ana- tomical societies was sent earlier, in April 1932. In June of the same year the Comite 9 John Crerar Library. Thirty-Sixth Annual Report for the Year I9JO. Chicago, 1931, p. 26. 10 Leyh, Geor?:. "Die Deutschen Zeitschriftenpreisen und die Amenkanischen Bibliotheken." Zentralblatt fiir BibliotheksWesen so :377-88, May 193~; summarized and discussed in: Brown, Charles H. ' German Peri- odicals in American Libraries: Deflation or Extinction?" Library Journal s8:525-28, June 15, 1933. 11 Medical Library Association Bulletin 21:90-91, January 1933. International des Bibliotheques at Bern passed a resolution recognizing the justifica- tion for repeated protests against high prices for German scientific journals, and called attention to the great loss which would be suffered by everyone concerned if libraries were no longer able to purchase these periodicals. The V erein Deutscher Wissen- schaftlicher Verleger was requested to use ariy means in its power to brin~ down prices, by cutting the · size of publications and by lowering profi.tsY During this period num- erous other protests were published in ·scien- tific and library periodicals, and complaints registered by scientific and medical associa- tions, both in this country and abroad. Under the constant barrage, the German publishers were getting uneasy but were not yet ready to retreat or capitulate. Their defenses were varied, e.g., prices would not · seem high if budgets had not been cut, a reduction in 'the size of periodicals would retard the progress of research, and it was impossible to foresee at the beginning of a year how much material should be printed in a journal. None of these arguments was convincing to the critics. Subcommittee on German Periodicals With the whole situation apparently heading for a showdown, Charles H. Brown became chairman in the fall of 1932 of the A.L.A. Subcommittee on German Periodi- cals. Under his able and dynamic guidance, building on the efforts of preceding groups and persons, substantial progress was made within a relatively short time toward a set- tlement of the major issue. As previously noted, the new chairman had been con- cerned with the problem for some time prior to his appointment on the committee. In December 1932 Mr. Brown called together in Chicago a group of represen- 12 Actes du Comite International des Bibliotheques. sme. Session. Bern, 1932, p. 46. 306 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES tatives of library associations to, consider a proposal from Ferdinand Springer, head of the firm of Julius Springer, foremost. Ger- man publisher of scientific literature. Dr. Springer suggested the establishment in America of a central buying agency to which he would be willing t~ grant a 25 per cent discount. He also offered to allow a special discount to members of certain American scientific societi~s. The scheme met with slight favor. Objections included · doubts as to its feas_ibility; its failure to solve the major difficulty, i.e.~ high prices of certain periodicals; and the hardships it would cre- ate for libraries' regular dealers. T ·he con- cessions offered obviously fell far short of expectations and were not acceptable. 13 By mid-1933 American librarians w.ere _ready for more drastic measures. The Medical Library Association's Committee on the Cost of Current Medical Periodicals, under the chairmanship of Mrs. Eileen R. Cunningham, who had been an active par- ticipant in the campaign for several years, invited Mr. Brown to meet with it in June 1933 at Chicago. There a series of reso- lutions was passed, to the effect that: no library should subscribe to any periodical without a fixed annual subscription price stated in advance; the cooperation of other library groups in the United States and abroad should be enlisted to help establish more equitable prices for medical and other scientific journals; and, failing any substan- tial reduction on excessively expensive jour- nals for I 934, libraries should cancel sub- scriptions, except in certain established ~ones in America and Canada. For the purposes of the last recommendation, the United States was divided into nine regions, with the aim of cutting' down to one subscription for each periodical for each region if it should become necessary. Looking toward 1~ M edical Library Association Bulletin 22:9-10, August 1933. JULY, 1947 the future, Mr. Brown suggested that these zones might eventually be used as a basis for wider library cooperation, e.g., in plans for subject specialization among libraries.14 Efforts toward Compromise At this juncture German publishers a,- parently decided some compromises were necessary. Four organizations, represent- ing authors, publishers, and librarians; met at Munster on August 3, and there the Borsenverein der Deutschen Buchhandler announced it would expect all its memb,ers in future to state subscription prices in ad- vance for all periodicals, and, furthe;, ·it would expect a reduction of. at least 20 per cent in the content and price of inflated periodicals. Announcement of this action was met with warm approval among li- . brarians, and some publishers complied with the agreement immediately. Lists received from Julius Springer in September, how- ever, showed. averag~ reductions of only 9 per cent and even some increases. Pro- tests were at once made to Springer, to the Borsenverein, to the N otgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft, and to others. Springer's defense was that his periodicals were not inflated, and, consequently, the Munster agreement did not apply. The matter was called to the attention of the German Imperial Minister of the Interior, who, apparently realizing that the circula- tion of German publications might be se- verely restricted because of ·the impasse which had developed, issued a statement directing authors and publishers to comply with the Munster agreement and if possible to extend it.15 Probably as a result of complaints from 14 Brown, Cha rl es H . "Bringing the Periodical Situation Up to Date." A .L .A. Bulletin 27:379-So, September 1933· 15 Brownt. Charles H. "Discu ssion on German Peri- odicals." Library -Journal s8:978, Dec. I, 1933· 307 libraries, the Borsenverein decided to send two representatives to the annual American Library Association conference at Chicago in October 1933. These delegates were Ferdinand Springer, of the Springer firm, and H. Degener, of the Verlag Chemie. As it turned out, the Chicago Conferenc~, pre- sided over by Mr. Brown, was the climax of all that had gone before. Two closed sessions were held, attended by representa- tives of the American Library Ass-ociation, Medical Library Association, and the In- ternational Federation of Library Associa- tions. The Borsenverein agents first pro- posed a year's armistice in order to allow time to work out adjustments. Their plan was rejected by the librarians present. After several days further negotiation, chief- ly with Mr. Brown and Mrs. Cunningham, Dr. Springer ag!-"eed to make average re- ductions of 30 per cent in the 1934 prices of twenty-six of his most expensive periodi- cals and to eliminate all Festschriften and Erganzungsbande. This agreement, appli- cable not only to American but to foreign libraries, was announced at the second ses- sion on October 18.1 '6 Action by Frankfm·t Conference Upon the return home -of the German -delegates, a conference was called in Frank- furt on November I i to consider the dis- cussions and results of the Chicago meeting. The conference accepted the Chicago agree- ment, asked that all periodicals costing more than forty gold dollars be reduced at least 30 per cent, and · went on record against some of the publishing abuses responsible for high prices. That the principal German publisher, Springer, was acting in good faith was shown by a list of his expensive pub- lications, the maximum prices of which were reduced by 34 per cent for 1934, 4 per cent 16 Ib id., p. 978-85. more than promised. 1 7 The actual prices were even more favorable-54 per cent be- low the 1932 figures, or 24 per cent under the average agreed upon in Chicago.18 Economies effected by the German pub- lishers, permittmg lower prices, were achiexed mainly by reduction in bulk. A comparative study of 1932 and 1934 periodi- cals, made by Janet Doe, revealed that the number 'of pages had decreased about 4 per cent more than prices and that the actual page cost in 1934 was 7·7 per cent higher than in 1932. The study also brought out that, even after the price reductions, Ameri- can libraries were paying an average of more than four times as much per page for Ger- man journals as for comparable French and English journals.19 It had been understood; however, that no decreases in per page costs would be possible without additional sub- scriptions. 20 A further difficulty was German abstract- ing and indexing periodicals which had been excepted from the price reduction agree- ment. An English report stated, on the basis of a survey, that six out of fifteen were substantially increased in price from 1934 to 1935. No adjustment for this phase of the problem was ever made. 21 Effect of Depreciated Dollar The devaluation of the American dollar early in 1934 created another crisis .for li- braries. The depreciated dollar was worth only sixty cents in Germany, therefore prac- tically nullifying benefits gained by libraries in the United States from price reductions. 17 Brown, Charles H. "Supplementary Notes on German Periodicals." Library Journal 59 :62-63, Jan. I 5, 1934. 18 A.L.A. Bulletin 28:595, September 19H· 19 M edical Library Association Bul/ehn 24:49-50, September 1935. · · 210 Brown, Charles H. "Library Budgets and the Cost of Periodicals." A.L.A. Bulletin 28:594-95, September 1934· 21 Bonser, Wilfrid. "The Cost of German Medical Periodicals, 1935." Library Association Record Ser. 4, 2 :155, April 1935· 308 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES English libraries were hit in the same way. German publishers were, of course, not re- sponsible for this condition, but it was clear that further concessions would have to be obtained to prevent widespread cancellations of subscriptions. At this point direct action was decided upon by Chairman Brown of the A.L.A. subcommittee. On his own ini- tiative and chiefly at his own expense, he went to Berlin and in May and June 1935 discussed with German publishers and gov- ernment officials the predicament in which American libraries were placed. Some re- lief was promised, and shortly after Mr. Brown's return, an official message was re- ceived from the German government assur- ing a reduction of 25 per cent in the export prices of German books an'd periodicals for libraries, effective Aug. 1, 1935. (Because of technicalities, the promised reduction ac- tually went into effect on September g.) This action was probably taken for two principal reasons: Germany's need for for- eign exchange and a desire for wide dis- JULY, 1947 tribution of German publications. 22 The work of his committee thus largely completed, Mr. Brown submitted a final' re- port at the end of 1935, reviewing the his- tory of the case and acknowledging the aid received by his group from librarians and library associations of many countries. 23 There is no question that the international cooperation of librarians and scientists was an important factor in bringing the prob- lem to a satisfactory conclusion. On the other hand, without such a leader as Mr. Brown, a constructive solution might have been much longer delayed. As a tribute to him the M.L.A. Committee on the Cost of Current Medical Periodicals stated, "His energy, diplomacy, and tact in dealing with the situation awakened the keenest admira- tion in all those who have worked with him." 24 These qualities undoubtedly con- tributed greatly to the successful outcome. 22 Brown, Charles H. "German Periodicals-Further Addenda." Library Journal 6o:752'-53, Oct. I, I935· 2a "German Periodicals." A.'L.A. Bulletin 29:854, 88o, December I935· 24 Medical Library Association Bulletin 22: I 09, November I933· 309