Journal prices, book acquisitions, and sustainable college library collections

College and Research Libraries

Volumn 69, Issue 6, 2008, Pages 576-586

  Walters, William H ^a  

^a Menlo College   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 57849101167     PISSN: 00100870     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.5860/crl.69.6.576     Document Type: Article

References (44)

1. David Käser, "Collection Building in American Universities," in University Library History: An International Review, ed. James Thompson (New York: K.G. Saur, 1980), 33-55;
2. Charles B. Osburn, Academic Research and Library Resources: Changing Patterns in America (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1979).
3. Charles Hamaker, "The Place of Scholarly and Scientific Libraries in an Increasingly and More Widespread Competitive Information Knowledge Marketplace," in Scholarly Publishing: Books, Journals, Publishers, and Libraries in the Twentieth Century, ed. Richard E. Abel and Lyman W. Newlin (New York: Wiley, 2002), 279.
4. Anna H. Perrault, "The Shrinking National Collection: A Study of the Effects of the Diversion of Funds from Monographs to Serials on the Monograph Collections of Research Libraries," Library Acquisitions: Practice & Theory 18, no. 1 (Spring 1994): 3-22.
5. Based on data for Millersville University (Millersville, Pennsylvania) and St. Lawrence University (Canton, New York).
6. Martha Kyrillidou and Mark Young, ARL Statistics, 2004-05 (Washington, D.C.: Association of Research Libraries, 2006), available online at www.arl.org/bm~doc/arlstat05.pdf [accessed 2 March 2008];
7. Alan MacDougall, "University Libraries: The Lull Before the Storm?" Bookseller no. 4437 (Jan. 4, 1991): 20, 22.
8. Andrew Grabois, "Book Title Output and Average Prices: 2004 Final and 2005 Preliminary Figures," in The Bowker Annual: Library and Book Trade Almanac 2006, ed. Dave Bogart (Medford, N.J.: Information Today, 2006), 516-22;
9. Perrault, "The Shrinking National Collection"; Charles A. Schwartz, "Modeling Scholarly Book Literature," Publishing Research Quarterly 10, no. 2 (Summer 1994): 29-35.
10. Michael Gorman, "The Economic Crisis in Libraries: Causes and Effects," in Scholarly Publishing: Books, Journals, Publishers, and Libraries in the Twentieth Century, ed. Richard E. Abel and Lyman W. Newlin (New York: Wiley, 2002), 266.
11. Kyrillidou and Young, ARL Statistics, 2004-05.
12. Book data are for North American academic books, 2001-2005. Periodicals data include both U.S. and foreign titles, 2003-2006, and reflect the purchasing patterns of both undergraduate and research libraries. EBSCO Information Services, Serials Prices 2002-2006 with Projections for 2007 (Birmingham, Ala.: EBSCO Information Services, 2006), available online at www.ebsco.com/home/printsubs/priceproj.asp [accessed 16 November 2007];
13. Janet Belanger Morrow, "Prices of U.S. and Foreign Published Materials," in The Bowker Annual: Library and Book Trade Almanac 2006, ed. Dave Bogart (Medford, N.J.: Information Today, 2006), 495-515.
14. Comprehensive, national data on the prices of online databases and journal collections are not available. The rate presented here, 7.2 percent, is based on local data for St. Lawrence University and Millersville University-specifically, on an analysis of changes in the invoice prices of those resources that were renewed from 2004 to 2005 and from 2005 to 2006.
15. Similar scenarios have been described by at least four authors: Gorman, "The Economic Crisis in Libraries"; Brian L. Hawkins, "The Unsustainability of the Traditional Library and the Threat to Higher Education," in The Mirage of Continuity: Reconfiguring Academic Information Resources for the 21st Century, ed. Brian L. Hawkins and Patricia Battin (Washington, D.C.: Council on Library and Information Resources, 1998), 129-53;
16. Joseph J. Kohut, "Allocating the Book Budget: A Model," College & Research Libraries 35, no. 3 (May 1974): 192-99;
17. Charles B. Osburn, "Marketing the Collection Development Aspects of Serials Control," in Serials Collection Development: Choices and Strategies, ed. Sul H. Lee (Ann Arbor, Mich.: Pierian Press, 1981), 9-17.
18. MLA Ad Hoc Committee on the Future of Scholarly Publishing, "The Future of Scholarly Publishing," in Profession 2002 (New York: Modern Language Association, 2002), 172-86. Available online at www.mla.org/pdf/schlrlypblshng.pdf. [Accessed 2 March 2008].
19. Based on data for journal articles in the fields of general biology, cell biology, organic chemistry, and applied physics. William H. Walters, "Institutional Journal Costs in an Open Access Environment," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 58, no. 1 (Jan. 1, 2007): 108-20.
20. National Center for Education Statistics, 2004 Academic Libraries Survey (Washington, D.C.: National Center for Education Statistics, 2006). Available online at http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/libraries/compare/Index.asp? LibraryType=Academic. [Accessed 2 March 2008].
21. Juris Dilevko and Lisa Gottlieb, "Print Sources in an Electronic Age: A Vital Part of the Research Process for Undergraduate Students," Journal of Academic Librarianship 28, no. 6 (Nov. 2002): 391.
22. Jennifer E. Knievel, Heather Wicht, and Lynn Silipigni Connaway, "Use of Circulation Statistics and Interlibrary Loan Data in Collection Management," College & Research Libraries 67, no. 1 (Jan. 2006): 35-49.
23. Marilyn Christiansen, "Patterns of Use of Electronic Books," Library Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services 29, no. 4 (Dec. 2005): 351-63.
24. Ethelene Whitmire, "Disciplinary Differences and Undergraduates' Information-Seeking Behavior," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 53, no. 8 (June 2002): 631-38.
25. Cheryl Dee and Ellen E. Stanley, "Information-Seeking Behavior of Nursing Students and Clinical Nurses: Implications for Health Sciences Librarians," Journal of the Medical Library Association 93, no. 2 (Apr. 2005): 213-22.
26. Fei Yu, Jan Sullivan, and Leith Woodall, "What Can Students' Bibliographies Tell Us? Evidence Based Information Skills Teaching for Engineering Students," Evidence Based Library and Information Practice 1, no. 2 (2006): 12-22.
27. Nisa Bakkalbasi and David Goodman, "Do Science Researchers Use Books?" in Charleston Conference Proceedings 2004, ed. Rosann Bazirjian, Vicky Speck, and Beth R. Bernhardt (Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited, 2006), 55-62.
28. Deborah D. Blecic, "Monograph Use at an Academic Health Sciences Library: The First Three Years of Shelf Life," Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 88, no. 2 (Apr. 2000): 145-51.
29. Also see Jonathan D. Eldredge, "The Vital Few Meet the Trivial Many: Unexpected Use Patterns in a Monographs Collection," Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 86, no. 4 (Oct. 1998): 496-503.
30. Hawkins, "The Unsustainability of the Traditional Library."
31. American Library Association, Outstanding Academic Titles (Chicago: American Library Association, 2006). Available online at www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/choice/outstanding/academic.htm. [Accessed 2 March 2008].
32. This value, correct as of March 2006, is the average for 13 of the 14 colleges in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education-all those for which data were available. The analysis is based on a random sample of 100 Outstanding Academic Titles published from 2000 through 2004.
33. William C. Robinson, "Price of Materials and Collection Development in Larger Public Libraries," Library Acquisitions: Practice & Theory 19, no. 3 (Fall 1995): 299-312.
34. Reba Leiding, "Using Citation Checking of Undergraduate Honors Thesis Bibliographies to Evaluate Library Collections," College & Research Libraries 66, no. 5 (Sept. 2005): 417-29.
35. See, for example, Sophie L. Wilkinson, "Behind the Scenes at Journals," Chemical & Engineering News 77, no. 37 (Sept. 13, 1999): 25-31.
36. Institute for Scientific Information, Journal Citation Reports. These examples illustrate Bradford's Law, which is supported by extensive evidence. Samuel C. Bradford, "Sources of Information on Specific Subjects," Engineering 137, no. 4 (Jan. 26, 1934): 85-86.
37. CSA, Ulrich's Periodicals Directory (Bethesda, Md.: CSA, 2007);
38. Institute for Scientific Information, Journal Citation Reports.
39. This finding, for Millersville University, is based on a random sample of 100 high-impact journals in the natural and social sciences. High-impact journals were defined as those ranked among the top 15 journals, in terms of citedness (impact factor), in each of 55 subject areas commonly taught at undergraduate colleges. While not all high-impact journals are appropriate for undergraduate students, impact factor is the most widely accepted indicator of overall journal quality. See Institute for Scientific Information, Journal Citation Reports (Philadelphia: Thomson Scientific, 2007).
40. William H. Walters, "Criteria for Replacing Print Journals with Online Journal Resources: The Importance of Sustainable Access," Library Resources & Technical Services 48, no. 4 (Oct. 2004): 300-04.
41. Links to the license agreements used by nearly 350 publishers and vendors can be found at EBSCO Information Services, Publishers'License Agreements (Birmingham, Ala.: EBSCO Information Services, 2007). Available online at http://ejournals.ebsco.com/ejournals/license.asp. [Accessed 2 March 2008].
42. Ithaka Harbors, Portico: An Electronic Archiving Service (New York: Ithaka Harbors, 2006). Available online at www.portico.org/about/portico- brochure.pdf. [Accessed 2 March 2008].
43. Walters, "Institutional Journal Costs in an Open Access Environment"; William H. Walters and Esther Isabelle Wilder, "The Cost Implications of Open Access Publishing in the Life Sciences," BioScience 57, no. 7 (July/Aug. 2007): 619-25.
44. Per O. Seglen, "Causal Relationship Between Article Citedness and Journal Impact," Journal of the American Society for Information Science 45, no. 1 (Jan. 1994): 1-11.