Economics of record provision

Abstract

The original initiative for looking at this area came from the BNB Research Fund which sponsored a paper on this topic for their 1987 seminar at Newbury. Initially, the intention had been to look at the issue in a cold analytical way by comparing the benefits which end‐users received from records with the cost of generating those records in the first place. To commence this analysis, it was decided to carry out a number of unstructured telephone and face‐to‐face interviews with record producers and record users. Amongst the record producing community, a range of feelings was expressed, but there was a great reluctance to talk about the operational costs of record creation. Users consulted presented a diverse range of views but generally expressed their dismay and frustration with the existing systems of record creation. The purpose of this paper is more to discuss the costly inefficiencies in record creation and to suggest some possibilities for more efficient record creation and provision in the future. A specific suggestion is that good, current, timely, bibliographic records are a marketing tool in their own right which enables publishers to sell their books in an increasingly competitive international market place. There is, therefore, a direct relationship between investment in good bibliography, and the development of greater sales of books in the international market.

Citation

Preston, D. (1990), "Economics of record provision", Aslib Proceedings, Vol. 42 No. 2, pp. 79-86. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb051162