Survey of Academic & Research Library Journal Purchasing Practices

[primarydat@aol.com]

Primary Research Group has published:

The Survey of Academic & Research Library Journal Purchasing 
Practices (ISBN: 1-57440-108-4).

The 182-page study presents data about the journals acquisitions 
and management practices of an international sample of academic 
and research libraries.

The study reports on a broad range of issues, including: spending 
trends, use of print vs. electronic access, purchases in bundles, 
purchases through consortia, the role of subscription agents, use 
and plans for use of open access, attitudes towards the pricing 
practices of a range of major journal publishers, sources of 
funding for journal purchases and relations with academic and 
administrative departments of library parent organizations, and 
the practical management of the journal acquisition process, 
among other issues.

Just a few of the report's many findings are that:

The libraries in the sample acquired a mean of more than 46% of 
their journal subscriptions in bundles of more then 50 titles.

The libraries in sample canceled a mean of 53 journal titles in 
the past year.

Mean spending on print edition only subscriptions was $130,721, 
less than a sixth of total spending.

About a quarter of the libraries in the sample believe that open 
access has already slowed the increase in journal prices.

15.56% of the libraries in the sample have paid a publication fee 
on behalf of an author from their institut ion.

For 42.22% of the libraries in the sample, all new subscriptions 
to journals include electronic access.

More than 64% of the libraries in the sample keep track of their 
various journal subscriptions through use of a commercial 
software product.

In general, subscription agents seem to enjoy a relatively high 
level of customer satisfaction. On the issue of timeliness of 
service, none of the libraries in the sample said that they were 
highly dissatisfied with their subscription agent and only 2.22% 
said that they were dissatisfied.

Non-academic research libraries have done more than their 
academic counterparts to make sure that contracts renew at the 
same time. Smaller institutions, those with journal budgets of 
less than $100,000 per year, were less likely to make such 
efforts than libraries with higher budgets.

For further information view our website at 
www.PrimaryResearch.com.

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