Ian,
On Mon, 10 Feb 2003, Ian Winship wrote:
> John Smith wrote:
>
> > be requested. However, if users had to pay for Document Delivery would
> > they request all these articles?
>
> Seems highly unlikely, particularly for students.
This was badly worded - I didn't mean that the person would pay the bill
but what would be the effect on totla downloads if the user knew a cost
would be incurred by someone, probably their Department.
> > The problem is that to the users of e-journals each article is free so
> > articles of limited interest are downloaded.
>
> Or a possible interest that isn't clear until the article is seen.
Obviously, but what proportion of downloads are made just to see if they
are interesting and what proportion are of sufficient value that without
access to an e-copy the user would request an IIL?
> > So when we look at download statistics we are not necessarily
> > seeing the real value the users place on the service.
>
> But you might say the same about ILL since we don't know what they do with
> the requested material, or indeed articles photocopied in the library.
Articles photocopied in the librray don't cost us anything and ILLs are
paid for by their departments (who also usually set limits on numbers per
year).
> > Does anyone know if there has been any research
> > asking what percentage of downloaded articles from e-journals are
> considered of
> > sufficient value that the user would be prepared to pay the
> > equivalent of a BL document delivery charge for it?
>
> You could apply some collection management techniques and set a limit
> (arbitrary?) of the number of downloads/year (month?) below which the
> ejournal would be cancelled. Even if stats are accurate we still have to
> decide on a cut off point.
The problem is the rising cost of collections of e-journals not individual
titles (as was stated at the beginning of my note). As they rise in cost
they are eating into journal budgets at an unsustainable rate. Also this
service subscription is often based on previous subscription spends so
Libraries that had large journal collections get hit hardest.
> I assume you charge for ILL, which not all of us do.
We charge the department not the enduser.
What I am interested in is what is the 'real' value of these
collections/services. It is hard to judge the value of something that you
effectively give away. So I'm proposing that if we knew what users would be
prepared to pay if they had to pay this might give us some insight into
this 'real' value.
Regards,
John Smith.
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