Resolved: tax status is no proxy for virtue
The Loon has heard variants on this conversation retailed to her a truly ridiculous number of times:
Librarian: We’re sorry; this license is unacceptable for {reasons}, including that it is far too expensive for our limited budget.
Vendor: BUT WE’RE A NON-PROFIT!
Librarian: …
Bah, humbug, saith the Loon. Non-profit tax status is no bulwark against abusive business practices such as but not limited to overcharging; it merely arranges that the proceeds therefrom do not go to business owners (including shareholders).
The American Chemical Society is non-profit. It also muscles in among the biggest of the big pigs in the most-loathed-vendors list of practically every license negotiator the Loon knows who has to purchase in chemistry. Oxford and Cambridge University Presses are non-profit. They are also suing Georgia State University over electronic reserves used in college teaching.
If this is virtue, send the Loon to hell; the company will be much less odious there.
For those license negotiators who work in public (or otherwise non-profit) institutions, allow the Loon to suggest a rejoinder: “How lovely; we’re non-profit too! Perhaps we can work out an arrangement where one non-profit is not viciously exploiting another, hm?”
The ACS executive director’s salary is more than the entire budget of LITA. By a lot. It isn’t even close. Just going to put that on the table.