It was reported recently that the New York Times is making its TimesSelect service available for free to all college and university users. Apparently there were complaints about this decision from college libraries who already pay a lot of money to give their students access to the Times archive via ProQuest and other databases. Presumably, free access to TimesSelect would significantly devalue those database subscriptions. As a result, the Times is backtracking a bit, now saying that TimesSelect will only be free for users affiliated with a college or university that already subscribes to one or more database with Times content.

Granted, this slight change in terms won't affect students and faculty at most large universities since they already do subscribe to ProQuest et al. But for users at smaller colleges without the budget for those massive databases, this has to be a huge disappointment. The fact that the change was made in response to librarian complaints is also worrisome. Do we really want to get in the business of encouraging content providers to restrict access to information?

[The Chronicle] The Gray Lady Rethinks Her Place in College Libraries (via The Distant Librarian)