From Barbara Lee, Library Director, The Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology, 222 Maple Avenue, Shrewsbury MA 01545; LEE@WFEB2.BITNET:

> I would like to bring to your attention a rate increase that I have recently become aware of. Analytical Chemistry is raising its institutional rate from $59.00 to $289.00 with no increase in issues. Numerous phone calls (it is published by the American Chemical Society), have produced the answer that they had not received the number of ads that they had hoped! This journal is of course still cheap by international standards but it is a very minimal production with lots of ads sprinkled in. It seems to me that ACS should subsidize the printing cost rather than trying to make a profit....

From Anne McKee, George Mason University; DataLinx: AMCKEE:

> We were notified by Faxon that Analytical Chemistry published by the American Chemical Society has increased from $59.00 to $289.00, an increase of ***450 PERCENT***. Needless to say, with the budget crisis here in the state of Virginia, we cannot maintain such an increase and I have already informed our chemistry department (which has had to cancel $3,600 already) that they will have to cancel either this title or another one. I have written a letter to the editor of this publication expressing our extreme dismay and will let you know if I receive a reply.

In the last issue Chuck Hamaker made some observations in HAMAKER'S HAYMAKERS about the distribution agreement Faxon had with Akademie-Verlag. Joel Baron, Director, Faxon's Publisher and Publication Services, sent this message:

> I wanted you to know that although the German government had agreed to sell Akademie-Verlag to VCH, that that had nothing to do with the two-year marketing and distribution agreement we have through Kunst und Wissen. The agreement remains in effect. You might also be interested in knowing that we understand the VCH deal has now been questioned, and that the bidding process may begin all over again.

>From Bill Benson; Wright-Patterson Air Force Base; DataLinx: FL2802:

> Don't know if your readers are interested but I am looking at LC's new catalog and it says that "the 5-year, 1986-1990 cumulation of New Serial Titles will not be published. For a complete cumulation in paper, subscribers should retain the 1990 annual cumulation to use with the 4-year, 1986-89 cumulation. Beginning in 1991, NST will be cumulated annually in a new microfiche edition." I don't know about other serials librarians, but I am not ready to shoot off any fireworks about this news. I use NST a lot and certainly do not need to search it year by year on microfiche! Is this the big decision that LC made after sending out their lengthy survey? Did all of us say that is what we wanted? Will we still pay the same fee? Wouldn't most of us prefer hard copy or other alternatives like CD-ROM? Don't most of us prefer a cumulative set to annual cumulations? Perhaps LC has more in mind, but they don't say so in the catalog. And perhaps, if we raise our voices, we can make a difference (before it's too late) even if it costs a bit more.