Use Measures for Electronic Resources: Theory and Practice A Librarians Perspective ALA ALCTS June 2

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Use Measures for Electronic Resources Theory and
Practice A Librarians PerspectiveALA /
ALCTSJune 27, 2005Chicago, Illinois
Brinley Franklin
Vice Provost for University Libraries University
of Connecticut
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Objectives

• Review some of the early efforts to develop cost
  per use data for electronic collections
• Discuss some of the ways libraries and consortia
  currently use unit cost information to make
  management decisions
• 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.

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I. Unit Costs of Electronic vs. Print Journals
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)
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Drexel University
Nonsubscription Costs
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
Space Systems Supplies Services Staff
Total Operational Costs
138,000
90,000
258,000
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.
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Drexel University
Subscription Costs
Titles 370 266 2,500 480 10,200 8,600
Total Cost 38,000 115,000 334,000 29,000 59
,000 537,000
Cost per Title 100 432 134 60 6 62
Print Journals Electronic Journals Individual
Subscriptions Publishers Packages Aggregator
Journals Full-Text Databases (non-unique)Unique
Electronic Journals
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.
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Drexel University
Total Unit Cost per Use
Print Journals Current Journals Bound
Journals Total Print Journals Electronic
Journals Individual Subscriptions Publishers
Packages Aggregator Journals Full-Text Database
Journals Total Electronic Journals
Recorded Use 15,000 9,000 24,000 23,000 134,00
0 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
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.
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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 publishers packages and
  aggregator journals were more cost-effective than
  individual subscriptions.

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.
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Medical Branch Library, University Library
Muenster, Germany
Unit Costs of Print and Online Journals (in Euros)
Print Subscription Cost
Print Usage
Online Subscription Cost
Online Usage
Online Unit Cost
Print Unit Cost
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
54,241 30,380 54,139 8,086 76,081
223,647
20.16 23.35 14.99 2.79 50.82 18.68
15.10 4.80 6.56 0.31 3.77 3.47
Adapted from Oliver Obst, Patterns and Cost of
Printed and Online Journal Usage, Health
Information and Libraries Journal 2003.
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Medical Branch Library Muenster, Germany
Conclusions

• 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.

Adapted from Oliver Obst, Patterns and Cost of
Printed and Online Journal Usage, Health
Information and Libraries Journal 2003.
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Annual Nonsubscription Costs for Print and
Electronic Journals
Print Journal Backfiles Cost Per Title (US)
Current Print Journals Cost Per Title (US)
E-Journals 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
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.
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• Using Unit Cost Data for Management Decisions

• University of Virginia
• University of Connecticut
• Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries (CARL)

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UVA Summary

• 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).

Special thanks to Jim Self (UVa)
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University of Connecticut Libraries Database
Unit Costs
FY 2002Cost
FY 2003Cost per Search
FY 2002Cost per Search
FY 2002Searches
FY 2003Searches
FY 2003Cost
WorldCat JSTOR FirstSearch Web of Science Total
0.27 0.73 0.64 1.88 1.15
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
11,160 30,650 6,375 144,039 192,224
Special thanks to Deborah Sanford (UConn).
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CARL Summary

• 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.

Special thanks to George Machovec (CARL)
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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.

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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.
•  
•  

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• III. MINES for Libraries

• U.S. Medical Libraries
• U.S. Main Libraries
• Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL)

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What is MINES?

• 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
  (LibQualTM).

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Library User Survey
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Purpose of Use By Location U.S. Medical
Libraries 2003 2005
In the Library n 6,590
On-Campus, Not in the Library n 15,948
Overall Use n 27,390
Off-Campus n 4,852
83 of sponsored research usage occurred outside
the library. 92 of this use took place
on-campus.
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Purpose of Use By Location U.S. Main Campus
Libraries 2003 2005
On-Campus, Not in the Library n 9,460
In the Library n 9,733
Overall Use n 26,983
Off-Campus n 7,790
72 of sponsored research usage of electronic
resources occurred outside the library 83 took
place on campus.
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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.
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Use Measures for Electronic Resources Theory and
Practice A Librarians Perspective

• 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 brinley.franklin_at_uconn.edu