Lis-elib readers may be interested in the following, reposted with
permission from arl-ejournal...

Forwarded message:
> Date: Tue, 22 Apr 1997 12:51:42 +0000
> From: "Perrin Wayne" <[log in to unmask]>
> 
> Dear Colleagues
> 
> Last month I circulated a survey to the listserver on the future impact 
> of electronic delivery on the books business and in particular on the 
> humanities and social science monographs business.
> 
> The survey was sent to a number of related listservers, and to date 104 
> replies have been received.  The results are summarised below with some 
> additional comments from respondents and from myself.
> 
> I am happy to share a complete listing of the survey results with anyone 
> (except, sorry, direct competitors!).  Just email me with an email contact 
> or fax number and I will send it through.
> 
> I would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody who took the time 
> to complete the questionnaire.  If anyone has any further comments or 
> points they would like to make to me directly then please contact me 
> directly on [log in to unmask] or telephone + 44 171 881 8067
> 
> Yours sincerely
> 
> Wayne Perrin
> Electronic Publisher
> Macmillan Publishers
> 
> Tel  + 44 171 881 8067
> Fax  + 44 171 881 8004
> Email  [log in to unmask]
> 
> SUMMARY OF RESULTS - SURVEY OF ATTITUDES TO ELECTRONIC BOOKS
> 
> YOUR LIBRARY NOW
> 
> Library Usage
> 
> Libraries continue to be heavily used with the majority of respondents 
> reporting increased student usage, although there was a wider variation in 
> the increase in faculty usage.
> 
> Demand for Desktop Delivery 
> 
> There was a general agreement that demand was there with a greater number 
> reporting that faculty members were more likely to be asking for this 
> service at present.  At this stage, however, I am not sure whether this is 
> driven by a particular type of academic (demographically or by subject 
> area) - an area for further research!
> 
> Student demand was relatively low although this may reflect the fact that 
> fewer universities possess the infrastructure to deliver to student's 
> desktops and fewer students have the hardware to do so.
> 
> Library Expenditures
> 
> The majority of libraries reported declining budgets .  This backs up all 
> the statistical evidence and of course our own Macmillan publishing 
> evidence of declining sales
> 
> At the same time there was a general feeling that monographs did represent 
> good value for money in relation to journals. 
> 
> Unfortunately, this hasn't helped us to stop the decline in sales - which 
> probably reflects the relative perceived importance of journals to 
> monographs and the preference to continue a run of a journal wherever 
> possible.
> 
> Monograph Purchasing
> 
> There was a general consensus that the importance was in the following 
> order
> (a)  librarian  (49.2% agreeing)
> (b)  academic (47.1% agreeing)
> (c)  approval plan (25.7% agreeing)
> 
> What was clear, however, that the decision is viewed largely as a 
> co-operation between the librarian and the faculty member (where their 
> advice is forthcoming!).  The approval plan may serve for many as a `safety 
> net'.
> 
> The Electronic Perspective Now
> 
> There was no clear trend on the way electronic expenditures were accounted 
> for, with similar numbers of respondents stating that they had or had not 
> established separate budgets.
> 
> The primary driving force for the move to electronic delivery was improved 
> access in particular for students but also faculty members.  Cost savings 
> were not generally expected, with many respondents pointing to the pricing 
> strategies of the publishers as the primary reason!
> 
> SECTION B - YOUR LIBRARY IN FIVE YEARS TIME
> 
> Trends in Academic Courses
> 
> The trend towards proliferation of courses was predicted to continue with 
> the majority of respondents replying that they expected growth in 
> undergraduate numbers in particular.
> 
> Future Print Acquisitions Budgets
> 
> General budgets were predicted to decline in real terms.  Budgets for 
> monographs were predicted to decline by a higher percentage of respondents, 
> suggesting that monographs budgets will continue to be squeezed even more 
> by rising serials costs and increased electronic expenditure.
> 
> Electronic Expenditure in the Future
> 
> Clearly many of the respondents are still in the process of establishing 
> their IT infrastructures and this expenditure was predicted to continue to 
> increase.  Comments also pointed out the ongoing costs of IT maintenance, 
> reflecting the fact that IT investment is never a one-off cost but 
> continues to require investment in support and in changing technologies.
> 
> The majority of respondents felt that electronic expenditure would be the 
> greatest area of growth although, respondents were highly split on whether 
> their library would be spending more on books than electronic products.  
> This may reflect the relatively low starting point of electronic 
> expenditure and therefore the fact that electronic expenditure still has 
> substantial `catching up' before it reaches print expenditure levels.
> 
> Other Library Trends
> 
> Sharing of resources was predicted to be increasingly important, perhaps 
> reflecting the growth of the `access not ownership' culture and the 
> pressure to find new ways of making purchases in a period of continued 
> decline in budget size.
> 
> Similarly the growth of the consortium market is clearly a trend which the 
> publishers are going to have to address.
> 
> Electronic Access
> 
> The vast majority of respondents predicted that they would be delivering 
> material to desktops in five years time.  In fact many pointed out that 
> they already were, so I should probably have included this question in the 
> first section for sake of comparison.
> 
> As far as the relative importance of electronic versus print was concerned 
> responses were very split, suggesting that the new information delivery 
> strategies will contain a variety of media with each medium delivering the 
> information most suited to it.  
> 
> However, a larger proportion of respondents stated that electronic delivery 
> would be the most important medium for students than did for faculty 
> members, which may reflect a demographic change with younger students more 
> ready to accept electronic delivery than older faculty members.
> 
> The WWW was almost without exception viewed as being more important.  In 
> retrospect, however, this may only reflect the growing importance of the 
> WWW as a commercial information delivery medium generally.
> 
> As for CD-Rom responses were again widely spread.  There was some interest 
> in the impact of DVD technology as the `new CD-Rom' and also concern about 
> the hardware (i.e. towers) and software proliferation implications in a 
> context of growing pressure for standard access software.
> 
> The Role of the Librarian in the Future
> 
> There was again almost complete agreement that librarians would become 
> increasingly pro-active both in information delivery and teaching 
> information access (with again many pointing out that they already were 
> very pro-active - please accept my apologies if I suggested that I did not 
> think that already - I have been a librarian in the past so I should know 
> better)
> 
> There was some dissatisfaction with publishers who are migrating products 
> to the WWW/CD-Rom but failing to alert the end-users to this change but 
> instead relying on the librarians to educate the end-users
> 
> SUMMARY
> 
> There is clearly a great deal of uncertainty about *exactly* how the 
> introduction of electronic access will effect both publishers and 
> librarians roles.  Some trends are coming through but what is clear that 
> change will take some time as all parties adjust to the new medium and its 
> possibilities.
> 
> The WWW itself has seen a rapid change from what were often rather limited 
> applications of electronic technology by publishers and (to a lesser degree 
> I believe, libraries and universities) but the distributive nature of the 
> WWW is only going to hasten those changes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> COPYRIGHT STATEMENT - IMPORTANT
> 
> c Copyright 1997 Wayne Perrin.  All rights reserved.  This report may not 
> circulated or reproduced in any form whether print or electronic, except 
> for personal use, without prior permission of the author.
> 
> If you wish to make use of the contents of this report then please contact 
> the author [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask] directly.  
> Permission will not be unreasonably withheld.
> 


-- 
Chris Rusbridge

Programme Director, Electronic Libraries Programme
The Library, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK
Phone 01203 524979	Fax 01203 524981
Email [log in to unmask]


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