>>> rwithers@LIB.MUOHIO.EDU 04/30/03 07:39AM >>>

The Technical Services and Collection Management divisions of the Academic
Library Association of Ohio will be holding a workshop on electronic
journals in mid-May. We are interested in providing an overview of what
practices people use to determine how many e-titles they provide access
to.  How does your institution do it? Please share your ideas...

1a. When asked to estimate the number of serials subscriptions, do you
include electronic titles? Titles which provide articles through
LexisNexis and other databases?
(REPLY: a.  Yes we do. ; b. Yes we do.  Our state has its "Magnolia
Project" which provides some databases statewide.  Some are geared K-12,
and others are for the "Higher Educational Institutions"  Through Ebsco)

1b. What is the job title/classification of the person who tracks this
information?
(REPLY:  Me.  Serials Librarian.)

2. Do you include links for free serials titles into your catalog? Include
these in the number of e-journals or periodicals to which your library
provides access?
(REPLY: a. Yes we do. ; b. Yes we do.  If it is included in our catalog
and put on our E-journals web page, it is counted)

3a. Do you track the number of titles available in part or in whole only
through research databases? How do you collect this information? How often
do you update it?
(REPLY:  We are adding titles from the databases available through the
Magnolia Project, however we are NOT tracking them at present.  This
probably will have to be done to compare the original title list and later
lists to verify titles going off or coming onto the databases) We also
purchase access to MD Consult

3b. In the event that only selected articles are available from a
database, do you exclude these titles? include them as if the  whole
title were availabe? use a fractional number?
(REPLY:  NO, we would not include them.  It does a disservice to the
patron to search for an article only to go to the electronic journal page
and find that article is NOT available.  ALSO, as a Medical School
Library, Some of the journals in these databases ARE NOT appropriate to
our collection and so are not added or counted.  However, if there are
some 'out of scope' journals that we do get in print (ie. Harvard Business
Review ((requested for one of our degree programs)) then we will add it.)

3c. What is the position title/classification of the person responsible
for collecting this information?
(REPLY:  Same as 1b.  ME ! )

4a. How do you estimate the long-term costs for subscriptions for
individual titles?
(REPLY:  The majority of our e-titles comes with our print subscriptions
to those titles.  If the publisher has more than 1 institutional rate
(shows 'Print Only' ; "Print + Online' ; Online Only), then we must go
with the print only.  If there is only the one rate 'bundled' which
inculdes online, then that is what we get.  We would rather be able to
provide with the money we have "New information'' (titles)  than in most
cases "pay extra for the privilege" of having electronic access to the
titles we own in print.

We did have some money where we went to some individual publishers and
upgraded selected titles to 'Print and Online'.  However, this
unexpectedly dried up and we had to return to the above stated policy on
individual titles.

4b. How do you estimate the long-term costs for subscriptions for titles
obtained through aggregators and/or consortial deals? (REPLY:  We
currently do not have any consortial deals. We do use use an aggregator
(Ovid Technologies) for some electronic access.  They have 'Collections'
of various titles that we purchase.  These are their PsycArticles
(partnered with the APA) and 2 nursing subject collections.  We also
Purchase access to the New England Journal of Medicine throug Ovid.  The
Print /Online policy with the Society publishing NEJM is too restrictive
to provide site access to this 'essential' publication. We pay a hefty
price to provide On-Campus access.

We did have some money where we added some individual titles through the
aggregator and upgraded selected titles to 'Print and Online'.  However,
this unexpectedly dried up and we had to return to the above stated policy
on individual titles.

4c. How do you estimate the ratio for cost per electronic title over a
multi-year period-- especially if it's through an aggregator?
(REPLY:  We don't.  We try to find the money each year for these
collections)

5. If you could wave your magic wand and change something about the ways in which libraries provide access to e-journals, what is one thing that
you would change to make it easier to gather and present statistics on the
number of e-journal titles, what would it be?

(REPLY: Your statement is really 2 questions. "ways in which libraries
provide access to e-journals".

It would benefit the patrons to be able to have a more standardized "look"
to those web pages where you have to go and then find the
volume/issue/article.  Each publisher, wants to present its own 'unique'
look to their sites, they have their priorities.  However at some point,
there should be a more standardized look (or group of standardized looks)
and feel when the patron gets close to the artical they want.

"what is one thing that you would change to make it easier to gather and
present statistics"

If you mean just numbers of titles, If you mean publishers, I don't think
there is much that could be done to combine number of uses, etc. from
different publishers.  Some of the Aggregators I believe have or are
developing statistical packages for these types of questions.

However each institution, needs to keep statistics on e-publications in a
form that is most useful to them.  For us, on our monthly statistical
sheet, I have in my E-journals, I update the number of Purchases Added ;
Gifts Added (includes bundled); Title changes ; Inactive titles ; Titles
withdrawn. Each month I list those titles done.  I then add those titles
to

A word document (now 40 pages) where I have listed 'Databases' or
'Journals' ; E-only or P+E ;  Purchase or gift ; Direct or other
(aggregator md consult ovid, etc) ; Active or Inactive(dead or cancelled)

That's it

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Rob Withers
 Assistant to the Dean & University Librarian
 Miami University Libraries
 Oxford, OH 45056

John Lucas

Serials Librarian
University of Mississippi Medical Center
2500 North State St
Jackson, MS 39216-4505

(PH) (601) 984-1277
(FAX)  ( 601) 984-1262
JLUCAS@ROWLAND.UMSMED.EDU