It is common to find usage stats supporting the previously 'unwanted'
titles, for example, the OhioLink library consortium found that 52% of
usage came from titles not previously subscribed to. I would be
interested in understanding a little more about libraries reluctance to
move to e-only subscriptions, particularly considering the savings
offered by some publishers.
Laura Cox
Consultant
-----Original Message-----
From: An informal open list set up by the UK Serials Group
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mieko Yamaguchi
Sent: 03 December 2002 19:59
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Elsevier
On Tue, 3 Dec 2002, E.P. Goldfinch wrote:
> Since everyone seems to have a view on this one, it would be very
> interesting to me, as a publisher, to know whether the packages being
> purchased, containing both wanted and unwanted titles, are actually
cheaper
> than buying only the wanted titles individually. If so, that would
somewhat
> weaken the cause for complaint.
Packages such as ScienceDirect and IDEAL of course contain both wanted
and
unwanted titles for most libraries. Deciding which titles are wanted or
unwanted is not that easy, however. We compared the list of titles to
which we did not subscribe in print and the additional cost of gaining
access to those titles through cross-access and decided to subscribe to
the
Elsevier ScienceDirect package but not to the IDEAL package. We placed
instead individual new orders which we had been holding back for titles
in
the IDEAL package. So you could say we decided to buy only the "wanted"
titles individually rather than purchasing the whole package.
I was surprised when I first saw our ScienceDirect usage statistics
because
the majority of the most popular titles (based on full-text downloads)
were
titles which we had never subscribed to or which we had cancelled in the
past.
We were still receiving current issues of certain titles in print at the
time
which might have affected the usage.
One year later 17 out of the top 30 titles are those which we had in
print
until the end of 2001. Six had been cancelled between 1981 and 1996
mostly
for financial reasons. The other seven were never subscribed to by this
library. In a multi-disciplinary library it is not easy to guess which
are
"wanted" or "unwanted" titles in a multi-disciplinary package.
One thing seems clear. The titles we subscribed to in print until the
end
of last year were not necessarily the titles that were "wanted" most.
Mieko
-----
Mieko Yamaguchi [log in to unmask]
Technical Services Manager/System Coordinator +44 (0)1248 382970
Main Library, University of Wales Bangor, UK +44 (0)1248 382979 (Fax)
|