The ACM digital library is, in my opinion, a fair deal. I join the ACM for roughly $50/year as a student, and I gain full access to everything in the Digital Library (DL). Nothing is off-limits.
The IEEE DL, on the other hand—I have no idea what I can and cannot access with my membership. For example, I’m trying to help a student locate the article Simulation And Implementation Of Clock Synchronisation In Transputer Networks.
Now, if I join the IEEE as a student member, will I gain access to this article? According to their access policies, I can’t really tell. I gain access to periodicals and conference proceedings; I assume, since the article in question says it is in the “proceedings” of a workshop, that it will be available. I’d hate to subscribe, and find out that I’m wrong.
And it really isn’t clear why my institution can’t access this article in the first place. We have some kind of partial subscription… which is, frankly, useless.
The ACM DL is, as far as I can tell, both cheaper and better. The IEEE, it would seem, is looking to make a buck off their DL, which is sad—because all they’re doing is reaming their members three-times over: once to write and review the material, once to go to the conference (and pay for the proceedings), and again to subscribe to the DL. Kinda shit if you ask me.