Chapter Five: Findings of the study
5.5 Interview responses of Acting University Librarian - Ms Nora Buchanan
5.5.2 Print journals versus full-text electronic journals
In this section of the interview schedule, Ms Buchanan was asked if print journal titles were cancelled in Science in favour of full-text electronic access, the number of print journals cancelled and the reasons for cancellation. She was asked further if the Library plans to cancel print subscriptions and how many titles it is considering canceling.
5.5.2.1 Journal cancellations
Ms Buchanan responded that no print titles were cancelled in 2003 in Science in favour of electronic journals. But in 2005, the Library plans to subscribe to Elsevier‟s ScienceDirect which would provide electronic access to 1900 titles across all subject disciplines. This would mean that the Library‟s Elsevier print journal subscriptions for the titles provided by Elsevier‟s ScienceDirect would be cancelled. There are about 1000 Science titles in Elsevier but the library presently subscribes to only 15 Elsevier Science print journal titles. The reason for cancellation of print journal titles is that the Library will get a ten percent discount on the ScienceDirect subscription.
5.5.2.2 Unique costs of journals
Two questions were asked on the unique costs of print and electronic journals and what were the current costs of processing print and electronic journals.
Her response to these two questions were answered in part here and were covered in detail later. The library does not charge itself for the space (library building), workstations and system costs. The system costs include the server, hardware, software and maintenance of the systems. These costs are paid for from separate university budgets and do not affect the materials budget. The computer systems are also used to perform several library functions and are not purchased solely for accessing and processing electronic journals.
The supplies and services budget covers the binding of the current unbound issues. The binding is done in-house and in her opinion, is fairly cheap. A single volume costs R38.00 to bind. This does not have a major impact on the cost of the journal. The security measure for the journals, the tattle-tape, is done by the two journal vendors Swets and Ebsco. These two vendors charge the Library a handling charge of about 13% per title and part of the service includes the tattle tape. If the library were to tattle the journals itself, the cost would be similar.
The cost incurred for the print journals was the physical handling and processing of the journals. Two full-time staff are employed to process the journals. They process all journals
and not just the Science journals and it would be difficult to calculate a percentage of their time spent processing Science journals. The Library subscribes to 3160 titles in total.
With electronic journals, it is more costly in terms of staff time to process and maintain the journals. Electronic journals require a higher Peromnes level staff to maintain them. The Peromnes level is the system used to grade staff. (Raju 1995 : 66 ) The staffing comes from many sections in the Library and not just two persons as with the print journals. The
Technical Services manager, a cataloguer and the subject librarians are involved in the maintenance of electronic journals but only a percentage of their time is spent on electronic journals and the costs, once again, would be difficult to calculate.
5.5.2.3 Additional costs of journals
Ms Buchanan was asked if there were increased costs for journals when they have an electronic option and what effect the electronic access has on the print subscription assuming both are subscribed to.
She responded that there were additional costs for electronic journals, but each title operates differently. At the time of the interview the Library paid an additional R12 000 for electronic journal access in 2004, for titles that it had access to in 2003. These were Sage and Institute of Electrical Engineers titles. Presently with the print journal subscriptions, the Library pays an additional 13% handling charge on each title from Swets and Ebsco. At the moment, the Library has the following types of subscriptions : only electronic titles, only print titles, print and electronic free and print and a percent additional charge for electronic. The additional costs differ with each publisher but average between ten to fifteen percent.
5.5.2.4 Choice between print and electronic journals
Ms Buchanan was asked from a cost perspective, what would the Library cut to receive for the same subscription and she thought the users would prefer to receive for the same subscription. She had to provide reasons for her response.
She responded that she would cut print journals for the same subscription. Her reasons were that there would be savings in the subscription costs and additional handling charge, but most
importantly there would be a saving in the costs of two full-time staff members who are currently employed to process print journals. These functions would not be required for the electronic journals. As stated in section 5.5.2.5, however, electronic journals require more staff time in another way.
She responded that with the users it was more difficult to decide. The reason for this was that with the users, there are different choices for different reasons. Some users prefer print journals and some electronic journals.
She thought that electronic journals would be favoured because of desktop accessibility, full- text searching, 24-hour availability, and functionality. Likewise print journals would be favoured for their ease of use and portability. She stated that the Science and Engineering users are very strong on electronic journals and would most probably prefer electronic journals.
5.5.2.5 Advantages and disadvantages of print and electronic journals
A question was asked about what Ms Buchanan considered the advantages and
disadvantages of the electronic journal compared with the print journal and vice versa. She responded that the advantages of electronic journals were the quick access, functionality and availability. The major disadvantages were the staffing and subscription costs.
Electronic journals do not always work smoothly and it is very time-consuming to ensure access is available all the time. The access points are the catalogue and the Library
Webpage and it is very time-consuming and difficult to ensure that access is always set up. It also requires a higher level of staff and this function is spread among a number of senior staff in the Library.
5.5.2.6 Archival issues
Ms Buchanan was asked if there was a cost distinction between providing access to current issues versus archival issues electronically. She responded that there is a cost distinction between access to current issues and access to back or archival issues. Publishers charge an additional amount for access to archival issues and only provide access to current issues
for a period. This current period also differs amongst publishers, some regard one year as current and some regard five years as current. The library subscribes to JSTOR which is an archival database and provides access to journals that go as far back as the 1800s. The library has recently purchased the Institute of Physics archive at a cost of R 5864.00.
5.5.2.7 Cost comparisons between print and electronic journals
Three final questions were asked in this section on cost comparisons. Ms Buchanan was asked if cost comparisons were made between print and full-text electronic journals, what they reveal or if the library intends doing any comparisons.
She responded that the Library does cost comparisons each year at the time of journal renewals and when it has to make journal cancellations. These exercises are ongoing and are done when the need arises such as the renewal period in October of each year. The previous exercises revealed that if an e-journal subscription is shared across campuses, a multi-site campus, as in the case of UKZN, then the subscription is cheaper, there would be no shelving and binding costs and the titles would be available at all campuses. These comparisons have also led to the library subscribing to electronic only titles like the suite of Institute of Physics titles.