Cari soci,
vi inoltro un messaggio da parte di Steve Maginn del CCDC riguardante la futura distribuzione della CSD. Il messaggio è stato inviato al socio Norberto Masciocchi ma sicuramente è di interesse per molti.
Mi scuso in anticipo con chi di voi ha già ricevuto queste notizie per altra via e con chi invece non è interessato.
Saluti
Annalisa Guerri
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Dear Professor Masciocchi,
First of all, please accept my apologies for the delay in getting back to you. I do now have some news for you.
In the absence of any agreement for change, and to ensure the continuing distribution and use of the CSD System in Italy for 2015, we had to take on direct distribution from here in Cambridge. We decided to charge the same amount that your NAC would have been charging, so there was absolutely no financial impact from the loss of the National Affiliated Centre. All 24 academic users in Italy who subscribed in 2014 were contacted, and I am delighted to say that 20 of these have renewed their subscriptions with us directly, with one further institution (Roma “La Sapienza”) being added to the list.
As you have suggested, we would certainly like very much to engage with you and your colleagues in the Italian crystallographic community with a view to charting the way forward for distribution of the CSD System in Italy. To this end, I have been in communication with Marco Milanesio at the Università del Piemonte Orientale. As he is the local organiser for this year’s Italian Crystallographic Association conference (at Vercelli in September – http://www.cristallografia.org/congresso2015 ), we are hoping to be able to hold a discussion meeting there at which we can explore the possibilities for the way forward and agree some actions for 2016. We would also like to present to you and your colleagues some news about new developments for the future of the CSD System.
I am aware that the Vercelli conference takes place just a few weeks after the ECM-29 conference in Rovinj, Croatia, and I am sure we can also hold some preliminary discussions there, although I am sure that many more interested parties will be present in Vercelli than in Rovinj. The timing of the Vercelli conference also provides us with enough time to implement decisions before the 2016 release of the CSD System.
Briefly though, there are at least three possibilities for the way forward which we should discuss at Vercelli;
– Continued distribution of the CSD System directly from the CCDC in Cambridge, as in 2015.
– A new National Affiliated Centre for Italy, distributing in the way the former NAC did.
– A “countrywide” licence for Italy; this would provide unlimited use and access for all of the CSD System to all academic users in the country, for one fee, agreed and paid centrally. More than 20 countries now have an arrangement like this with the CCDC, including Spain, France, Switzerland, and one in Slovenia providing for the former Yugoslav countries, although funding in each of these is obtained differently and distribution achieved in different ways.
There may be other possibilities which you and / or your colleagues may wish to propose, of course.
We will keep in touch I am sure; more news about our proposed meeting in Vercelli should be available soon.
Best regards,
Steve Maginn