National Library of Australia Staff Papers, 2000

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Provision of Access to Journals in Electronic Form: Issues for Libraries and the Role of the National Library of Australia

 

A paper presented by Pam Gatenby at the National Library of Australia, Collecting Advisory Committee (CAC) meeting, 11 December 2000, National Library of Australia, Canberra

Paper 2

Background

1. The aim of this paper is to identify the main issues for libraries in moving to provide access to electronic journals and to outline the Library’s national role in this area. The paper also sets out the Library’s current position with regard to providing access to electronic overseas journals and its plans for the future.

2. Electronic journals are made available to libraries in a number of ways. They can be accessed from the publisher’s website as a single title or as part of a package, for free or on a subscription basis. They can also be made available through third party services, often operated by library subscription agents. These services provide libraries with a unified entry point for electronic journals and have the advantage of offering a common search interface as well as streamlining the acquisition process but subscriptions to individual journal titles are required in order to gain fulltext access to them. Some services provide ‘pay per view’ access to articles in journals that the library does not subscribe to. Searching facilities and access to abstract information is often available across all the journals offered by the service. Examples include Swets Navigator, Ebsco Online, OCLC’s Electronic Collections Online.

3. Journals may also be made available through one or more aggregator services. Aggregator services provide libraries with access to a package of fulltext data. In this way libraries obtain access to a far greater range of titles for a lower price than it would cost to subscribe to each journal title individually. Fulltext access is generally integrated with indexing and searching functionality. The journal publishers get paid a royalty fee that is somewhat smaller than the cost of a subscription to the journal. The content is maintained on the provider’s own site, or may be loaded locally at the subscriber’s site. Examples include ProQuest 5000, Academic Search Premier, and ABI Inform Global.

4. Australian libraries are replacing their print journals with access to electronic journals at an increasing rate. In fact, representatives from subscription agencies state that Australian libraries are making the transition from print to electronic more quickly than the rest of the world. Libraries in the university and public sectors have been forming consortia to acquire access to electronic resources, particularly the major aggregator services and have been cancelling the equivalent print subscriptions. The university and public library sectors have a well-defined clientele and can negotiate licences to include access for their offsite users. The extent of distance education offered in Australia is a strong driver for university libraries to embrace electronic access. Public libraries in Victoria and New South Wales have been particularly well served by the consortia arrangements that have resulted in access to electronic resources for all public library clients.

5. The National Library’s initial focus for the purchase of electronic resources has been on reference materials, particularly indexing and abstracting tools eg. ASSIAnet: applied social sciences index & abstracts, all the Informit Online databases, Oxford English dictionary, and Encyclopedia Britannica. Three of the overseas indexing products (Humanities abstracts full text, Social sciences abstracts full text and General science abstracts full text) contain text of selected articles but no graphics, for instance. They are regarded as ready reference sources or as a means of quickly satisfying basic information requests, and not as a replacement for the printed journals.

6. As yet, the Library has not moved to cancel print versions of journals that are available electronically through any of the means listed above. Whereas many of the university libraries have developed collecting policies that actively promote replacing print with electronic journals the National Library has reserved its decision on moving in this direction. There are still fundamental issues to be resolved (outlined below) before the National Library would be ready to cease building its collection of print subscriptions.

7. An increasing number of electronic journals are being made available in conjunction with their print equivalents. The Library will soon have access to the electronic equivalents of the titles it orders from the subscription agent Ebsco and will provide links from the catalogue records for the print versions to the electronic versions. There is also an increasing number of overseas journals available in online form only that would be in-scope for the Library’s Collection Development Policy, but the Library is not yet seeking out and providing access to these, mainly because of the issues referred to below that still that need to be resolved to the Library’s satisfaction.

Issues for libraries

8. In building collections of electronic resources libraries face a number of issues. Library responses will vary depending on their role and clients’ needs.

  • Resource discovery: Discovering which libraries have access to which resources can be difficult especially if the resource is not recorded in the library catalogue or on the National Bibliographic Database (NBD) on Kinetica. Focus groups held by the Reader Services section at the National Library indicate that users would prefer to be able to find all the resources they need regardless of format, from one source, the library catalogue. To meet this expectation for electronic resources, libraries need to manage the continual maintenance of bibliographic records. For instance, catalogue records for electronic resources need to be updated when coverage of the resource catalogued changes, if the library’s means of access to it changes and when links need to be amended because the site has moved.
  • Loans and lending: Licences control the use of electronic journals in subscription services. Terms and conditions vary, and provision of interlibrary photocopies of articles is generally not permitted. Even when it is permitted under the terms of the license, some libraries may choose not to provide document delivery from electronic resources.
  • Stability of content: Services may add or withdraw particular titles from the selection of titles they offer. Some publishers are entering into what look to be exclusive arrangements with some services. If the service ceases to provide access to titles the library regards as core, then alternative sources need to be found to continue to provide access to those titles. The cost effectiveness of alternative arrangements would need careful consideration.
  • Archiving for future access: The archiving of electronic journals is a concern as the older issues of a journal title are a valuable research resource and access to backfiles may not be guaranteed. Many commercial publishers or aggregator services have no long-term plans in this area. OCLC’s Electronic Collections Online Service and JSTOR (Journal STORage) are exceptions as they have archiving policies that ensure ongoing access to journals.
  • Access after cessation of subscription: The availability of the journal titles to which a library has subscribed is not always guaranteed if subscriptions are cancelled. Ebsco Online and OCLC’s Electronic Collections Online are two services that do provide libraries with access to journals after cancellation.
  • Embargo periods: Some publishers do not make the most recent journal issues available on the aggregator service until after a certain period of time has elapsed as a means of encouraging libraries to maintain their print subscriptions. For example, Harvard business review is available online 12 months after publication.
  • Quality issues: Difficulties include the awkwardness of browsing issues, the poor reproduction of some images and graphics, and problems for lower-end PCs in efficiently accessing some resources. Additional shortcomings arise when the journals are not reproduced in full. Some services may only provide the text of articles, or may not include letters, book reviews, or advertising content. For instance, the National Library is collaborating with RMIT Publishing and the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) to provide fulltext articles from selected titles indexed in APAIS, but only the articles that have been indexed are included in the service and not the entire content of the journal issue.
  • Broken links: A common problem with all electronic resources is the broken links that result when a resource is moved by the host site and the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the resource changes. This means that references and citations to the resource will no longer be functional. The link to the resource in the library’s catalogue or web listing will not work and the user will not be able to locate the resource. Identifying and correcting broken links is a resource intensive task for libraries.

9. All of the above issues are of great interest and concern to the Library because they can impact on reliable access to information by researchers and on the integrity of research resources provided in electronic form. How the issues are managed by different electronic journal services will be a key negotiating point when the Library comes to determining which services are feasible alternatives to continuing with print subscriptions to journals. However, the issues need to be considered in the light of the benefits that electronic journals can deliver to users and libraries. These include speed of publication and availability, convenient access from work or home at any time of day, links within articles to related articles or additional sources of information, simultaneous access to titles by multiple users, and the convenience of alerting services that advise the user when a new issue becomes available.

National Role of the Library

10. The National Library’s key strategic statement, Directions for 2000-2002, has the goal of ensuring that: "All Australians, at their place of choice, have direct, seamless access to print and electronic sources of information." In order to do this the Library commits to: "Lead in collaboration initiatives, policy formulation and the development of national standards that will support unmediated access to information resources."

11. A major priority for the Library in pursuing its strategic goal is to collaborate with a range of partners on provision of a robust national information infrastructure to support the research needs of library users. The Library considers the National Bibliographic Database (NBD) to be a central component of this infrastructure with an important role to play in facilitating resource discovery and sharing through the holdings and bibliographic information it contains. Promoting the relevance of the NBD and its resource sharing role for electronic resources is an immediate issue for the Library. A related concern is the impact that the cancellation of print subscriptions and the move to electronic access might have on the ability of the national library system to adequately support the research needs of its users. These concerns are being addressed by the Library, as outlined below.

Resource sharing

12. Few libraries are currently cataloguing the electronic journals to which they have access into their online catalogues or onto the NBD. Most create separate listings on their library web sites which means that it is difficult to establish at the national level which libraries have access to which electronic titles. In response to this situation, the Kinetica Expert Advisory Group on Electronic Resources was established to investigate and provide advice to the Library on improving the availability of cataloguing and location information for electronic collections on the NBD. A few aggregated collections of electronic journals have bibliographic records available for the titles in the collection and these may be available for purchase from the collection vendor. Given that some collections contain 5,000 titles it is vital that an efficient means of loading these bibliographic records to the NBD is adopted. Also, ways of adding location/access information for libraries that subscribe to the collection and of keeping those records up to date, are being explored. In a pilot project, records for titles in Elsevier’s ScienceDirect service were purchased from OCLC and have been added to the NBD. The University of New South Wales has added its holdings to these records with other libraries expected to follow. The Expert Advisory Group has undertaken a survey of libraries to determine where electronic resources are located, and to identify how access is provided as well as the issues associated with maintaining the data relevant to these collections. The results of the survey will be collated and made available early next year.

13. To encourage libraries to create bibliographic records for electronic resources where a record does not already exist on the NBD, the Kinetica Service intends to simplify the record creation process so non-cataloguers can easily add records to the database. In addition, the Library is considering a strategy for the automated collection of records (or metadata) for electronic resources from other sources for adding to the NBD to strengthen its centralised resource discovery role.

Supporting research

14. As more libraries move to cancel print subscriptions in favour of access to electronic journals, there is a risk that access to the collections of libraries will become more restricted and that the component of the national collection that is available for sharing through the Document Supply system, will shrink. This situation will come about unless libraries are prepared to negotiate with vendors of electronic journal services for the right to copy articles for Document Supply purposes and to provide access to non-core constituency users.

15. Another concern is that there would appear to be a considerable level of duplication between the electronic services to which libraries are subscribing. While this could be viewed as no different from the current situation with print collections of journals, the transition to electronic access provides Australian libraries with the opportunity to consider new cooperative collection development approaches. Instead of duplicating subscriptions to electronic journal services – a costly exercise at the national level – a more coordinated, selective approach could be explored, at least on a sector if not national basis, in order to deliver a better national outcome in terms of coverage. The economics of providing access to electronic journals is an associated issue that needs greater analysis. Not only are libraries subscribing to the same resources but they are often paying for some titles through aggregator services that attract very low or no use from their users. With a more coordinated approach to assessing national research needs and to providing access to electronic resources, it would be possible for Australian libraries to initiate negotiations with publishers for packages tailored to particular needs at competitive prices, taking into account resources already available nationally. (Realising the benefits of such an approach would depend on negotiating flexible access conditions with publishers and on access information being recorded on the NBD.)

16. To explore such an approach, the Library has established a consortium with the State and Territory libraries to provide licensed access to online electronic information to a wide constituency of users. The aim of the first stage of the project is to provide access to a core set of Australian content products appropriate to State, Territory and National library users. A later aim is to extend content to overseas products and those suitable for public library users and collections thereby ensuring Australians who are not affiliated with an educational institution, are not denied access to electronic information services. Specific tasks that the consortium is dealing with include management models, licensing arrangements, and operating principles that address issues such as document supply, resource discovery, access rights and the content of services provided.

Use and users

17. A strategy to move away from print subscription to electronic access must include consideration of the impact on users. More research is needed into levels and ease of use of electronic resources, and into how researchers go about finding the information they need in the electronic context. For instance, anecdotal evidence suggests that some users find discovering what is available in electronic form to be frustrating as they have to use different search interfaces and cannot browse content as they are used to doing with print journals.

18. Measuring usage of print journals has always been a difficult task and it has not become any easier in an electronic environment. Whereas collecting usage statistics of print material is in the domain of the library, usage statistics of electronic resources need to be sought from the publisher or aggregator. The Council on Library and Information resources published a White paper on electronic journal usage statistics in October 2000. This study of American libraries highlights the difficulties faced in obtaining meaningful, consistent and reliable usage statistics. Not all publishers provide statistics and there is little uniformity in what is being counted which limits the usefulness of comparisons across several services. The International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC) has developed guidelines for statistical measures of usage, which are an initial step into improving data collection and reporting.

19. Changing patterns of use, with greater demand for specific journal articles rather than whole journal issues, are resulting in predictions of change in journal publishing. Industry commentators are predicting that the individual journal article as part of a journal cluster will replace the traditional concept of journal volume and issues.

20. In 1998 the Library established the Australian Libraries Collecting Task Force which comprises representatives from the Australian research and library communities, to look into issues associated with access to overseas monographs in Australia. The focus of the Task Force has recently turned to overseas journals and to the issues identified above. To advance understanding of all the issues associated with access to journal literature in Australia, the Task Force is gathering information on libraries holdings in print and electronic form and on the information needs of researchers in particular fields. This will include focus sessions with user groups at a cross-section of libraries to determine user needs, behaviour and expectations. The implications of its findings for the future of access to journal literature in the country and the feasibility of cooperative national action to address identified concerns, will then be considered.

Future plans of the National Library

21. During 2001 the Library will determine its position on the future directions of its overseas journal collecting. This will require consideration of major policy issues, analysis of the economic impact of collecting versus provision of electronic access, and determining a strategy for changing over to electronic access if the Library decides to go in this direction. Some of the issues that will need to be dealt with are as follows:

  • Access models: the various services and access models available for electronic journals will need to be studied to determine the conditions and features each offers, their coverage compared to our existing collections, and comparative costs.
  • Budget implications: the impact on the Library’s Acquisitions Budget will need to be determined. Pricing models are still settling down and it is not necessarily the case that electronic access is a cheaper option to subscribing to print journals, at least initially.
  • Scope of access: a benefit of providing access to electronic journal services can be that the services cover many more titles than are available through the library in print form. The cost-effectiveness of providing expanded access needs to be considered in the light of collection development policy objectives.
  • User information needs: the information needs of both on-site and remote users who use the National Library need to be understood before dramatic changes to access policy are implemented.
  • License conditions: the license conditions that the Library is prepared to accept with regard to access and resource sharing of electronic resources, will determine to some extent how quickly we can make the transition to electronic access.
  • Workplace implementation: the impact on work processes and work design needs careful consideration before any large-scale changeover to electronic access occurs.
  1. A major policy consideration for the Library is whether it has a special role or responsibility for collecting overseas journals in the context of the national library collection. For instance, for those areas in which the Library has strong national collections it could undertake to maintain print subscriptions to titles with long, historically significant print runs, or where it holds the last print subscription in the country, it could undertake to continue its print subscription if desirable in the national interest. As part of the process to define its future directions for overseas journals, the Library needs to consider and consult on policy questions such as these and to develop a set of principles or guidelines that would steer implementation of strategy in this area. The Collecting Advisory Committee would be a valuable source of advice in shaping the strategy.

Recommendation

1. That the Collecting Advisory Committee notes the report and provides advice on:

  • the significance of the issues raised in the report
  • the future role of the Library in providing access to overseas journal literature

4 December 2000