|
Replacing the real with the virtual: buying and borrowing
journals at the University of Melbourne
Mary Ann Gibson,
Dorothea Rowse,
Vija Pattison and
Pat Knight
Abstract | Paper in
Portable Document Format (PDF) Presentation in Microsoft® PowerPoint®
format
Rocketing price increases has
meant that many expedients have been tried over the past ten years to maintain
access to the journal literature vital for research. The notion of access over
ownership, while popular with librarians has simply not been acceptable to
academic researchers who want the immediate access of a journal subscription
held by the library. The University of Melbourne Library has, over the past two
years, developed a philosophy and services to deal with this.
Considerable effort has been made
to expedite the document delivery service so that the majority of articles are
supplied within 2 days, and the Library now places most requests off-shore with
suppliers, whose delivery goals match our needs. Academics have been encouraged
to review journal subscriptions in three categories, the third of which are
those titles which are of peripheral or lesser interest, which could be
supplied by relying on current awareness and fast document delivery, thus
freeing up funds for new titles. There is now a blend of buying and borrowing
in the access to journal titles.
In addition, this philosophy is
currently being translated into a possible mechanism to be used when preparing
the materials budget. A controlled percentage increase for the subscription
component might be managed by using document delivery to provide access to
titles that could be cancelled to control the expenditure.
This paper is based on experiences
gained during a major review of journal subscriptions during 2002, and surveys
of customers and turnaround times in the document delivery area.
|