A comparative study of medical ebook and print book prices.

BACKGROUND: Although most medical libraries buy ebooks, there has been little discussion of the comparative costs of medical ebooks and print books. OBJECTIVES: To determine whether individually purchased medical ebooks cost more or less, on average, than the same titles in print format and, if so, to calculate the price differential. METHODS: The author searched the platform of monograph vendor YBP for the 1095 titles in the 'Clinical Medicine' category of Doody's Core Titles 2018 edition. For each title, the print price and the lowest ebook price were noted; the ratio of ebook price to print book price for each title was then calculated. RESULTS: On average, ebooks cost 2.20 times more than their print equivalents, though the size of the price differential varied greatly with the publisher. For some publishers, ebooks cost nearly the same amount as print books, while for others, ebooks cost three or even four times as much as the print. DISCUSSION: The greater price of some ebooks may make them unaffordable for libraries or mean that those titles cannot be purchased as ebooks even when that format would be preferred. CONCLUSIONS: Buying ebooks, at least on a title-by-title basis, can be very costly for medical libraries.

Comparing gender discrimination and inequality in indie and traditional publishing.

In traditional publishing, female authors' titles command nearly half (45%) the price of male authors' and are underrepresented in more prestigious genres, and books are published by publishing houses, which determined whose books get published, subject classification, and retail price. In the last decade, the growth of digital technologies and sales platforms have enabled unprecedented numbers of authors to bypass publishers to publish and sell books. The rise of indie publishing (aka self-publishing) reflects the growth of the "gig" economy, where the influence of firms has diminished and workers are exposed more directly to external markets. Encompassing the traditional and the gig economy, the book industry illuminates how the gig economy may disrupt, replicate, or transform the gender discrimination mechanisms and inequality found in the traditional economy. In a natural experiment spanning from 2002 to 2012 and including over two million book titles, we compare discrimination mechanisms and inequality in indie and traditional publishing. We find that indie publishing, though more egalitarian, largely replicates traditional publishing's gender discrimination patterns, showing an unequal distribution of male and female authors by genre (allocative discrimination), devaluation of genres written predominantly by female authors (valuative discrimination), and lower prices within genres for books by female authors (within-job discrimination). However, these discrimination mechanisms are associated with far less price inequality in indie, only 7%, in large part due to the smaller and lower range of prices in indie publishing compared to traditional publishing. We conclude that, with greater freedom, workers in the gig economy may be inclined to greater equality but will largely replicate existing labor market segmentation and the lower valuation of female-typical work and of female workers. Nonetheless, price setting for work may be more similar for workers in the gig economy due to market competition that will compress prices ranges.

Diseño, elaboración y publicación del catálogo de publicaciones de OPS/OMS en línea / ss

Elaborar un diseño gráfico y la estructura de base de datos, del catálogo virtual de publicaciones, para el centro de documentación OPS/OMS

Problemas y tendencias actuales de la información cientificomédica / Social medicine and public health in presence of the XXI century challenges

Se fundamenta el valor de la información como factor decisivo en la evolución y desarrollo del conocimiento humano. Se definen las principales regularidades de la actual era de la información dentro del sector biomédico y se subrayan sus implicaciones para el proceso de comunicación científica. Se exponen las alternativas básicas orientadas a contrarrestar los efectos del vertiginoso auge de la literatura cientificomédica, del acelerado aumento en los precios de las publicaciones y del inconveniente que presenta la barrera idiomática. Finalmente, se advierte lo apremiante de desarrollar recursos de control bibliográfico exponencialmente superiores ante la inminente permanencia del fenómeno descrito y la necesidad de continuar brindando cada vez mejores servicios asistenciales con menos costo (AU)

Taste sets the price: Meade, Askew, and the birth of bibliomania in eighteenth-century England.

Three of the most important libraries sold during the first 100 years of English book auctions belonged to doctors. By examining the contents of these sales and the prices achieved in them, I hope to be able to throw some light on the extent and expertise of English book collecting by physicians to discover the principles that governed book values through this period, and to illustrate how three prominent medical men's libraries fitted into the century's wider cultural development.

Selected list of nursing books and journals.

This, the 1990 update of notable nursing books and journals, shows many new titles in the areas of nursing diagnosis, critical care nursing, pharmacology, and psychiatric nursing. Nurses and librarians will find the entire list a useful tool in developing a collection of current nursing literature.

Book prices and costs for a small-hospital library: a subject analysis.

An analysis of the Brandon/Hill lists has provided individual price figures to assist the librarian of a small hospital in calculating book costs associated with establishing and maintaining an up-to-date collection suited to institutional needs. For the fifty-three subject categories analyzed, the following were calculated over the past twenty-two years: average price per title, size and cost of the category, number of new titles or editions, percentages price increases, and cost of maintaining a basic collection. Used in conjunction with local purchasing data, these figures can be useful in budget preparation.

Selected list of Books and Journals for the small medical library.

The relationship of the "Selected List" to collection development is explored in the introduction to this revised list of 559 books and 135 journals. The list is intended as a selection guide for the small or medium-sized library in a hospital or comparable medical facility or as a core collection for a consortium of small hospital libraries. Books and journals are categorized by subject; the book list is followed by an author/editor index and the subject list of journals by an alphabetical title listing. Items suggested for initial purchase by smaller libraries (155 books and 54 journals) are indicated by asterisks. To purchase the entire collection of books and to pay for annual subscriptions would require an expenditure of about $38,900. The cost of only the asterisked items totals approximately $13,200.

Selected list of books and journals for the small medical library.

This revised list of 539 books and 136 journals is intended as a selection guide for small or medium-sized hospital libraries or for small medical libraries in comparable health care facilities. It can also be used as a core list by consortia of small hospital libraries. Books and journals are categorized by subject; the book list is followed by an author index and the list of journals by an alphabetical title listing. Items suggested for initial purchase by smaller libraries, 137 books and 54 journals, are indicated by asterisks. To purchase the entire collection of books and to pay for annual subscriptions to all the journals would require an expenditure of about $30,000. The cost of only the asterisked items, which are recommended for first purchase, totals approximately $8,900.