Chapter Three: Literature review
3.4 Trends
3.4.5 Trend five : document delivery as a way–out of high serial costs
Libraries have of necessity begun to redefine themselves, looking towards resource sharing, interlibrary loan and document delivery to compensate for reduced subscriptions. While libraries are changing, they are somewhere in the middle of the process. It will take a long time for an „access‟ environment to be complete. In this transition period, a major challenge will be to develop sensible plans which allow libraries to take steps forward. Many studies
have been undertaken to assess whether a library‟s journal subscription or providing access to journal articles by interlibrary loan is more cost-effective. Models have been based on estimating the cost per use for journal subscriptions and comparing it with the cost per request for interlibrary loan.
The study by Kingma (1996) and Kingma and Mouravieva (2000) estimated the costs of journal subscriptions and library and consortium interlibrary loans for the Library centres of the State of New York at Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo and Stony Brook in the US. The use study method was employed to track the use of both bound and unbound volumes for a one- year period. Use of the bound journals was recorded as part of the shelving process, with every re-shelving being defined as one use. Use of unbound journals were recorded on labels affixed to the front cover of all issues. All titles that received a total of five or fewer uses were defined as low-use titles and were considered candidates for cancellation. The cost per use of these low-use titles were based on the subscription price. The figure was then compared with access cost for these titles, derived using the ARL/RLG cost study figure of $18.62 of the average cost per interlibrary loan transaction. The ARL/RLG conducted an interlibrary loan cost study in the same time period. The ARL/RLG studied 1991 borrowing and lending operations costs of twenty-six research libraries in the US and Canada. The survey instrument measured the costs directly involved in interlibrary loans, factoring in staff, networking charges, photocopying fees, delivery charges and suppliers. This study found that in 1991 research libraries spent an average of $18.62 to borrow a research document and $10.93 to lend a document. Analysis of the data from the use study revealed that in fact
$8.20 was the average cost per use of all titles while the average cost per use of low-used titles were $93.46. (Goosen & Irving 1995 : 45-48) It was revealed in the study that low-use titles are an expensive proposition.
The study showed a significant potential savings from an increased reliance on interlibrary loan. Interlibrary loan and document delivery services provide a way of accessing the documents not available on site. Electronic access and electronic communication between libraries have made interlibrary loan more convenient and time-saving. However, providing access is costly and it is therefore necessary to understand thoroughly the costs involved.
(Kingma and Mouravieva 2000 : 20)
From the point of view of the library, given the current situation, the choice between one alternative or the other, that is, between acquisition through subscription or by interlibrary loan should be based on cost/efficiency criteria, that is the availability of access to a greater number of journals at the same cost. The costs, once they have been identified, are then compared with a certain degree of efficiency.
An economic model for acquisition is used to determine the most cost-effective method of access. Patrons can access a journal article by interlibrary loan or by the library‟s subscribing to the journal. The costs of access by interlibrary loan include salaries, supplies, and
equipment for the lending and borrowing library as well as any document delivery fees.
These costs are incurred each time an article is requested. The cost to the patron of interlibrary loan includes the period of waiting for delivery. Kingma (1996 : 23) showed that for most patrons of academic libraries this cost is, on average, trivial because the response time is two weeks rather than three months. The cost of ownership includes the cost of the journal subscription as well as the cost of cataloguing and shelving. Unlike the costs of interlibrary loan, the cost of a journal subscription is, for the most part, fixed and not incurred with each use.
A simple way of determining the most cost-effective method of access is to compare the cost of the journal subscription to the cost of each request multiplied by the number of requests.
The most cost-effective method of access is the one with the lowest total costs over the lifetime of the journal: for example, if the cost of the subscription is R100 and the cost of the interlibrary loan is R10 for a single use. Only if the patron uses the journal ten times or more in its lifetime will a subscription be more cost-effective. In other words if there are ten or more requests for an article from the subscription, would the subscription be cost-effective. If the requests were under ten times then the most cost-effective method would be access via interlibrary loan. The cost of interlibrary loan, level of use, and the cost of the journal subscription must be estimated. (Kingma and Mouravieva 2000 : 23)
A survey of the literature has indicated that there is likely to be a gradual shift from a
substantial ownership to an increasing emphasis on access for some categories of material.
E-journals will have a strong impact but a relatively unimportant one because the function that they will take over is not that of the printed journal but that of an efficient means of
communication within the research community. In terms of measuring the cost-effectiveness of these new alternatives, it is clear that many libraries are lacking use-data in relation to their own journal collections and it will not be easy to assess the cost-effectiveness of alternative approaches.
Document delivery would be an economic solution for less requested periodicals. However, the commercial suppliers of document delivery, together with the increasing possibility of having e-journals available, make it increasingly possible for libraries to eliminate
subscriptions to less-used journals by access to individual articles at the time of request.
(Kingma and Mouravieva 2000 : 23)
From the analysis of the literature, it could be said that: access via document delivery becomes a possible alternative for all those journals where the possibility of obtaining an article quickly costs less than the price of subscription (including all costs) divided by the number of anticipated uses in a year.
Access can be based on subscription prices or cost per transaction. Pricing is negotiated directly with the aggregator. Such systems have opened entire new horizons about the actual usage of journals and particularly the individual articles within a journal. These systems are able to track what journals are used, which articles within those journals are used, and by whom.