Re: Question on journal use

[David Goodman <dgoodman@Princeton.EDU>]

There is some information on the use of printed journals. "Use" 
in this case often defined as reshelving count. Volumes used as 
headrests count as uses. The most extensive data that I know 
being from Wisconsin, of which a sample is at 
http://www2.lib.uoguelph.ca/systems/rdaehn/peruse/99SummUsage.pdf.

Data from the period during which OA journals were becoming 
almost universal in science are obviously hard to analyze, 
because one has to know for each journal in each library what was 
available, and for what years.

For journals where both formats are available, rough estimates is 
that online use is 2X to 100X higher. The even rougher estimates 
for the unbound print issues show significant use only for the 
expected JAMA, Nature, etc.

I did a little work on this, but have never published, because 
the print figures were too low to analyze and I feel ashamed for 
not having started before the transition when I could have gotten 
a baseline.

If someone has trustworthy numbers, please let us all know.

Dr. David Goodman
Associate Professor
Palmer School of Library and Information Science
Long Island University
and formerly
Princeton University Library
dgoodman@liu.edu
dgoodman@princeton.edu

----- Original Message -----
From: Richard Feinman <RFeinman@downstate.edu>
Date: Sunday, April 16, 2006 9:54 pm
Subject: Question on journal use
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu

> Once again, forgive me if this is a question everybody knows 
> about. For journals that libraries have print copies and online 
> access, what is the relative use of each?  Is this tabulated 
> for any journal?
>
> Richard D. Feinman, Professor of Biochemistry