use measures for electronic resources: theory and practice a librarian’s perspective ala / alcts...

Use Measures for Electronic Resources: Theory and Practice

A Librarian’s Perspective

ALA / ALCTSJune 27, 2005

Chicago, Illinois

Brinley FranklinVice Provost for University Libraries University of Connecticut

I. Review some of the early efforts to develop cost

per use data for electronic collections

II. Discuss some of the ways libraries and consortia

currently use unit cost information to make

management decisions

III. Briefly describe how MINES for Libraries™ identifies

the extent to which electronic resources support

research, instruction, and other activities at U.S.

and Canadian research libraries.

Objectives

Drexel University Library

D-Lib Magazine (2002)

Medical Branch Library

of the University Library

Muenster, Germany

Health Information and Libraries Journal (2003)

Nonsubscription Periodicals Costs

CLIR Study (June 2004)

I. Unit Costs of Electronic vs. Print Journals

Space

Systems

Supplies & Services

Staff

Drexel University

Total Operational Costs $138,000 $90,000 $258,000

Electronic Journals

$ 5,000

$ 10,000

($2,000)

$ 125,000

Current Journals

$ 40,000

$ 2,500

$ 600

$ 46,000

Bound Journals

$ 205,000

$ 2,400

$ 8,000

$ 42,000

Adapted from: C.H. Montgomery and D.W. King, “Comparing Library and User Related Costs of Print and Electronic Journal Collections: A First Step

Towards a Comprehensive Analysis,” D-Lib Magazine, October 2002.

Nonsubscription Costs

Drexel University

Print Journals

Electronic Journals

Individual Subscriptions

Publisher’s Packages

Aggregator Journals

Full-Text Databases (non-unique)

Unique Electronic Journals

Titles

370

266

2,500

480

10,200

8,600

Adapted from: C.H. Montgomery and D.W. King, “Comparing Library and User Related Costs of Print and Electronic Journal Collections: A First Step Towards a Comprehensive Analysis,” D-Lib Magazine, October 2002.

Subscription Costs

Total Cost

$38,000

$115,000

$334,000

$29,000

$59,000

$537,000

Cost per Title

$100

$432

$134

$60

$6

$62

Drexel University Total Unit Cost per Use


Print Journals

Current Journals

Bound Journals

Total Print Journals

Electronic Journals

Individual Subscriptions

Publisher’s Packages

Aggregator Journals

Full-Text Database Journals

Total Electronic Journals

Recorded Use

15,000

9,000

24,000

23,000

134,000

20,000

158,000

335,000

Subscription

Cost per Use

$2.50

NA

$2.50

$3.20

$2.25

$1.35

$0.40

$1.40

Operational

Cost per Use

$6.00

$30.00

$15.00

$0.45

$0.45

$0.45

$0.45

$0.45

Unit Cost

per Use

$8.50

$30.00

$17.50

$3.65

$2.70

$1.80

$0.85

$1.85

Drexel University Conclusions


Operational cost per use for print journals ($15) was much greater than for electronic journals ($0.45);

The highest cost per use ($30) was associated with bound journals, given the cost to house them and their relatively low use;

Full-text database journals were used heavily and were cost effective (at less than $1 per use);

Unit costs for publisher’s packages and aggregator journals were more cost-effective than individual subscriptions.

Medical Branch Library, University Library Muenster, Germany

Adapted from: Oliver Obst, “Patterns and Cost of Printed and Online Journal Usage,” Health Information and Libraries Journal 2003.

Unit Costs of Print and Online Journals (in Euros)

Academic

Blackwell

Elsevier

High Wire

Springer

Total

67,533 €

35,742 €

60,143 €

8,984 €

85,353 €

257,737 €

3,350

1,531

4.012

3,223

1,679

13,795

3,593

6,329

8,248

25,975

20,346

64,491

Print Subscription Cost

Print Usage

Online Subscription Cost

Online Usage

Online Unit Cost

54,241 €

30,380 €

54,139 €

8,086 €

76,081 €

223,647 €

20.16 €

23.35 €

14.99 €

2.79 €

50.82 €

18.68 €

Print Unit Cost

15.10 €

4.80 €

6.56 €

0.31 €

3.77 €

3.47 €

Medical Branch LibraryMuenster, Germany

Conclusions

Adapted from: Oliver Obst, “Patterns and Cost of Printed and Online Journal Usage,” Health Information and Libraries Journal 2003.

•For titles included in the study, users accessed the online

version significantly more than the print version.

•The unit cost of an online usage was 5.38 times

(18.68 € /3.47 €) less expensive than the unit cost of print

journal usage.

Annual Nonsubscription Costs for Print and Electronic Journals

Schonfeld, King, Okerson,

and Fenton, The

Nonsubscription Side of

Periodicals: Changes in

Library Operations and

Costs between Print and

Electronic Formats, Council

on Library and Information

Resources, June 2004.

Print Journal Backfiles

Cost Per Title ($US)

$ 10.95

$ 10.67

$ 35.19

$ 10.63

$ 7.28

$ 16.84

$ 12.83

$ 26.29

$ 16.01

$ 47.04

$ 33.53

$ 105.65

$ 63.77

$ 313.89

$ 92.38

$ 101.37

$ 74.06

$ 50.33

$ 49.82

$ 41.77

$ 59.21

$ 29.37

$ 0.88

$ 1.10

$ 0.32

$ 0.63

$ 0.39

$ 1.80

$ 0.98

$ 0.18

$ 1.63

$ 1.15

$ 1.15

Bryn Mawr

Franklin and Marshall

Suffolk

Williams

Drexel

George Mason

Western Carolina

Cornell

NYU

Pitt

Yale

Current Print Journals


E-Journals


II. Using Unit Cost Data for Management Decisions

• University of Virginia

• University of Connecticut

• Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries (CARL)

UVA Summary

Special thanks to: Jim Self (UVa)

• Electronic journals provided by 26 publishers and aggregators cost about $2.3

million in fiscal year 2003, and there were 1.4 million recorded, yielding an average

cost per article downloaded of roughly $1.64.

• Cost per article used ranged from $.07 to $17.92; the median publisher/aggregator

cost per article use was slightly more than $1.00.

• Forty-nine major electronic reference databases cost approximately $550,000

annually. These 49 databases were searched about 1.05 million times last year,

yielding a $0.52 per search cost.

• The most heavily used database was searched more than 270,000 times, at a per

search cost of $0.08. An infrequently searched database had the highest per search

cost ($16.68).

University of Connecticut Libraries Database Unit Costs

Special thanks to: Deborah Sanford (UConn).

$ 0.27

$ 0.73

$ 0.64

$ 1.88

$1.15

WorldCat

JSTOR

FirstSearch

Web of Science

Total

35,762

31,485

14,736

72,040

154,023

$9,766

$23,100

$9,380

$135,270

$177,516

30,131

49,439

13,700

66,420

159,690

$0.37

$0.62

$0.47

$2.17

$1.20

FY 2002Searches

FY 2002Cost

FY 2003Searches

FY 2003Cost per Search

$11,160

$ 30,650

$ 6,375

$ 144,039

$192,224

FY 2003Cost

FY 2002Cost perSearch

CARL Summary

Special thanks to: George Machovec (CARL)

•Subscribing to 13 databases costs CARL about $600,000 a year. The databases

are then offered to more than 100 libraries, 10 of which are Alliance members.

Based on annual usage, each library in the state is assessed a share of the cost,

with a $350 minimum.

• Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries’ 10 members used the 13 databases

approximately 1.3 million times in a recent fiscal year, or 56% of the total state-

wide use.

• Consequently, each CARL member paid about $0.25 for each use of these

databases.

Conclusions

• Different libraries can expect to have different nonsubscription and unit costs per use for their electronic collections, even if licensing costs are similar.

• Electronic journal use data will become more reliable and is probably already more reliable than use data for print journals, allowing better unit cost comparisons among journal titles.

• Operating costs in the print environment typically exceeded subscription costs; in the pioneering Drexel study, nonsubscription costs ($0.45) represented only about 25% the total cost per use ($1.85) of electronic journals.

• Libraries still typically compute subscription cost per use, not total cost (i.e., subscription plus nonsubscription) cost per use.

Conclusions

•We can expect significantly lower operating costs in the electronic

journal environment than we experienced in the print environment AND

significantly more use, resulting in much lower unit costs per use.

•The data we now have available may raise some questions about our

previous selection policies:

•Some journals whose prices seemed preposterous in the absence of

cost per use data may seem (at least slightly) more reasonable in the

context of cost per use.

•Conversely, some reasonably priced journals now seem expendable

given their low-recorded use and unit cost per use.

III. MINES for Libraries™

•U.S. Medical Libraries

•U.S. Main Libraries

•Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL)

•MINES is a research methodology consisting of a web-based survey form and a sampling plan. •MINES measures who is using electronic resources, where users are located at the time of use, and their purpose of use.

•MINES was adopted by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) as part of the “New Measures” toolkit in May, 2003.

•MINES is different from other electronic resource usage measures that quantify total usage (e.g., COUNTER, EQUINOX, E-Metrics, ICOLC Guidelines, ISO and NISO standards) or measure how well a library makes electronic resources accessible (LibQual+TM).

What is MINES?

Library User Survey

24%

9%

27%

39%

SponsoredResearch

Instruction

Patient Care

Other

Purpose of Use By LocationU.S. Medical Libraries

2003 – 2005

*83% of sponsored research usage occurred outside the library. 92% of this use took place on-campus.

31%

14%10%

45%

33%37%

14%16%

13%

50%

18%19%

On-Campus, Not in the Libraryn = 15,948

In the Libraryn = 6,590

Off-Campusn = 4,852

Overall Usen = 27,390

5%

26%

66%39%

SponsoredResearch

Instruction

Other

OtherSponsoredActivities

Purpose of Use By LocationU.S. Main Campus Libraries

2003 – 2005

*72% of sponsored research usage of electronic resources occurred outside the library; 83% took place on campus.

2%14%

63%

21%

11%

2%

25%

62%

6%

2%

34%

58%

On-Campus, Not in the Libraryn = 9,460

In the Libraryn = 9,733

Off-Campusn = 7,790

Overall Usen = 26,983

OCUL Scholars Portal Users by Purpose of Use

In a sample of 20,300 electronic resources uses at OCUL libraries,

there were four uses outside the library for each use in the library.

8%6%2%

16%

26% 42% Sponsored Research

Coursework

Other Research

Other Activities

Teaching

Patient Care

Copies of this presentation

are available at:

www.library.uconn.edu/~bfranklin

See also:

“Managing the Electronic Collection with Cost

per Use Data” by Brinley Franklin, IFLA Journal,

Vol. 31, No. 3 (October, 2005)

www.minesforlibraries.org

Contact the author at:

[email protected]

Use Measures for Electronic Resources: Theory and Practice

A Librarian’s Perspective

use measures for electronic resources: theory and practice a librarian’s perspective ala / alcts...

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