279

Rethinking the Subscription 
Paradigm for Journals: Using 
Interlibrary Loan in Collection 
Development for Serials

Gail Perkins Barton, George E. Relyea, and Steven A. 
Knowlton*

Many librarians evaluate local Interlibrary Loan (ILL) statistics as part of 
collection development decisions concerning new subscriptions. In this 
study, the authors examine whether the number of ILL article requests 
received in one academic year can predict the use of those same journal 
titles once they are added as library resources. There is little correlation 
between ILL requests for individual titles and their later use as subscribed 
titles. However, there is strong correlation between ILL requests within a 
subject category and later use of subscribed titles in that subject category. 
An additional study examining the sources from which patrons made ILL 
requests shows that database search results, not journal titles, dominate. 
These results call into question the need for libraries to subscribe to indi-
vidual journal titles rather than providing access to a broad array of articles.

Introduction/Statement of Problem
Interlibrary loan (ILL) is not merely a valuable public service to library users. Examina-
tion of patron behavior around ILL can lead to insights about how the collection can 
best be shaped to meet users’ information needs. 

In a traditional collection development model, collection development librarians 
try to identify journal titles most likely to be of use to patrons, leaving their colleagues 
in interlibrary loan to meet patrons’ information needs when the library lacks access 
to a particular title. Collection development and ILL are therefore closely linked in 
fulfilling the library’s mission to provide patrons the information they desire. What is 
more, interlibrary loan data are often used to shape collection development decisions. 
It stands to reason that, if a patron needed a title badly enough to request it via ILL, col-

Gail Perkins Barton is Assistant Professor and Interlibrary Loan Librarian, Collection Management Interim 
Head, at the University of Memphis; e-mail: gpbarton@memphis.edu. George E. Relyea is Research Assistant 
Professor, Division of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Environmental Health, at the University of Memphis; 
e-mail: grelyea@memphis.edu. Steven A. Knowlton is Librarian for History and African American Studies 
at the Princeton University Library (formerly Collection Development Librarian, University of Memphis 
Libraries); e-mail: steven.knowlton@princeton.edu.©2018 Gail Perkins Barton, George E. Relyea, and Steven 
A. Knowlton, Attribution-NonCommercial (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) CC BY-NC. 

doi:10.5860/crl.79.2.279



280  College & Research Libraries March 2018

lection development librarians should consider adding it to the collection. Conversely, 
collection development decisions such as cancelling a subscription have the potential 
to affect the workload of ILL staff.

However, as more libraries are gravitating toward emphasis on access to informa-
tion rather than “ownership” (including licensed rights to electronic content), ILL data 
can shed light on the relative importance of each model of librarianship.1 If patterns 
of ILL use indicate a need for specific serials titles, then the ownership model can be 
justified. However, where usage is diffused, librarians may do well to question whether 
providing content by acquiring individual titles is the most effective approach to meet-
ing information needs. 

This study examines user behavior around ILL to test a commonly accepted principle 
of collection development: that ILL requests should inform decisions to begin subscrip-
tions to individual serials titles. Building on the findings of that test, this study also 
examines the ways in which patrons identify the material they later request through 
ILL. Putting the former findings in the context of the latter findings allows us to weigh 
in on the important question of ownership versus access. 

Examining Assumptions about the Use of ILL Data for Collection Development Decisions
In serials librarianship, it has become a standard practice for collection development 
librarians to look at ILL requests as one factor among several that inform decisions 
about whether to start a new subscription. From 1958 through 1960, Eugene Graziano of 
Southern Illinois University tested the hypothesis that “titles most frequently requested 
for interlibrary loan in any given time interval…are the titles that should be considered 
for first purchase.”2 Based on his findings, Graziano ultimately concluded that this kind 
of scrutiny had little value for selecting journals; yet the idea has persisted. In 1974, Doris 
New and Retha Ott suggested that titles requested with enough frequency “should be 
considered for subscription”; and, in the decades since, Brian Williams and Joan Hub-
bard note, that notion has become “widely recognized” in collection development.3 
Elena Bernardini notes that it behooves publishers to allow ILL of their titles because 
“analysis of transaction data often has a positive effect on new titles acquisitions.”4

In broad strokes, Herbert White notes that “anything ‘borrowed’ often enough to 
endanger fair use criteria should be bought immediately.”5 Peggy Johnson writes in 
her standard guide to collection development that “repeated requests from users for 
articles from a particular journal suggest that journal should be added to the collec-
tion.”6 The rationale for using ILL data to inform collection development decisions is a 
recognition that librarians can never fully comprehend the information needs of their 
patrons. White expressed it in terms of anticipation of user needs: 

When we select for purchase we make a conscious effort to anticipate what our 
clients might ask for and most librarians do it well. However, permanent acqui-
sition through purchase cannot be a perfect process. We can’t always anticipate 
what one user might want, nor can we anticipate that two or more users might 
want the same thing at the same time. Limitations of budget and space constrain 
even the largest research library and the interest in certain material could peak 
and decline rapidly.”7 

Williams and Hubbard observe that “interlibrary borrowing requests represent dem-
onstrated needs by the faculty and students.”8

While this practice of using ILL data to select journal titles for subscription seems 
to be sound at first glance, it rests on two assumptions. The first is that collection 
development should prioritize acquisition of resources that are expected to be used 



Rethinking the Subscription Paradigm for Journals  281

most often. The second assumption is that prior ILL usage predicts future usage of 
subscribed content. The first assumption involves a philosophy of collection develop-
ment and cannot be tested. The second assumption, however, is subject to examination 
through a test of correlation.

There is solid bibliographical ground for assuming that prior ILL requests predict 
future usage. In some ways, materials requested through ILL are similar to other serials. 
For example, it is established that patterns of usage through ILL are similar to patterns 
of usage for materials owned by a library. Stephen Bensman and Stanley Wilder note 
that “interlibrary loan use of serials is not the random use of rare and unimportant 
titles. On the contrary, it manifests the same characteristics of serials use within a li-
brary and is dominated by the same titles.”9 It may be sensible to consult ILL statistics 
for collection development decisions in similar ways as usage statistics are examined. 

However, if prior ILL usage is not, in fact, correlated to usage of the same title after 
it is subscribed, then reliance upon ILL data to inform serials collection decisions is 
probably ill-advised. This study offers a test of that assumption, using a single academic 
library’s ILL data and usage figures for subscribed titles. 

Exploring How Library Patrons Identify Materials to Borrow
The practice of using ILL data to identify titles for which to begin subscriptions has 
embedded in it the notion of the journal title per se as a thing of value to information 
seekers. While it is inescapable that journal publishers still sell their content in pack-
ages called journal subscriptions, the question of whether the package is important to 
library patrons is open. In the last century, patrons and librarians alike had internal-
ized lists of the most useful or esteemed journals in certain fields. This sense of some 
journals being more valuable than others persists, especially among academic faculty. 
In many disciplines, publishing in certain journals carries more weight toward tenure 
and promotion than does publishing in less prestigious journals. Criteria for a journal 
being ranked highly often include peer review, expert opinion, low acceptance rate, 
and high circulation.10

In the twentieth century, Wilder notes, the information landscape, particularly in the 
sciences, was marked by “a high degree of consensus on what is important research, 
which individuals and institutions produce it, and what journals publish it… [The 
consensus was] measurable, and highly stable over time.”11 This was in an era when 
information retrieval was time-consuming, requiring manual searches in paper indexes 
or, at best, CD-ROM databases, and then consultation of physical volumes to assess 
the usefulness of an article. In such an environment, the prestige (and accompanying 
familiarity) of a journal was an important marker of an article’s likely value to library 
patrons. The journal title was associated with the usefulness of its articles as part of the 
library’s collection, justifying the collection development approach discussed above. 

However, with nearly seamless integration of online indexes and full-text journal 
articles, the library patron of the twenty-first century may give less weight to the 
journal title when considering which articles to seek out. Examination of ILL data to 
explore how patrons gather information about the articles they request may provide 
insight into the importance of collecting journal titles as opposed to providing more 
access to individual articles.

Literature Review
Use of ILL Data for Collection Development Decisions
Many studies have been performed regarding comparison of ILL requests and sub-
scribed materials; the most common have looked at ILL requests for titles that have 
been cancelled. Most of them have determined that cancelling subscriptions does not 



282  College & Research Libraries March 2018

cause a significant increase in ILL requests; further, they often then conclude that 
ILL is a cost-effective alternative to subscriptions as a method of providing access to 
content published in journals.12 Such calculations, however, rest on the assertion that 
reliance upon ILL provides patrons access to content with the same ease as does a 
library’s subscription. Elizabeth Roberts reported that a significant portion of library 
patrons simply does not bother to use ILL because of “delay or inconvenience.”13 This 
phenomenon was corroborated in a study by Steven Knowlton, Iulia Kristanciuk, and 
Matthew Jabaily, who found that, “after patrons identify desired articles that require 
ILL, they only submit ILL requests 31 percent of the time.”14

Studies of the opposite problem—testing whether ILL data is a useful predictor of 
titles that should be subscribed—are less common. Graziano’s 1962 study occurred in 
a time before usage statistics were available. Instead, he compared ILL requests to lists 
of most cited serials and lists of desiderata prepared by teaching faculty. He concluded 
that “interlibrary loan records are of limited value in pointing up specific serials titles 
for backfile purchase… [because] as many as 70 [percent] of all serials titles requested on 
interlibrary loan should be excluded from consideration for purchase, because they are 
likely to be obscure, not likely to be found on any ‘most cited’ lists and not likely to be on 
departmental desiderata lists.”15 His findings were confirmed by T.D. Wilson, who per-
formed the same analysis for a special library, in contrast to Graziano’s academic library.16

It was not until 1999 that a study testing the link between ILL requests and later 
usage of the same titles was performed. Mary Wilson and Whitney Alexander were 
preparing to enter an agreement with Elsevier to subscribe to a package of electronic 
titles. They used ILL requests to identify 54 titles “they had confidence… students, 
faculty, and staff would use.” After three months of electronic access, 80 percent of the 
titles had been used at least once.17

In 2004, Paoshan Yue and Millie Syring explored a similar situation, as their library 
began a subscription to the full Elsevier package in 1999. They found that 97 percent of 
Elsevier journals that had been requested via ILL in the year prior to the package sub-
scription were “downloaded more frequently in Fiscal Years 2000 to 2003 than they were 
requested in FY 1999.” However, the relative frequency of ILL requests was not a predictor 
of the frequency of later downloads: “a title that is requested most frequently in a given 
year has about a 25% chance to also be the most needed title in the following years.”18

The few studies published to date have tested the notion that ILL use should dictate 
beginning a subscription because ILL requests are a predictor of later usage, but only 
in broad terms. They have explored ILL requests within groups of titles. However, 
the prevailing notion is that ILL requests for individual titles will correlate to use of 
subscribed content within the same title after a subscription is begun. Although Wil-
son and Alexander tested such a correlation to assess the value of a single publisher’s 
package, we have found no study testing that correlation in a publisher-neutral study.

ILL Data and Information-Seeking Behavior
While there is abundant literature regarding information-seeking behavior among 
library patrons, few studies have incorporated ILL data.19 Lynne Porat examines the 
most relevant theories of decision making as it applies to library use. She notes that the 
“non-rational” library user (that is, virtually all users who engage in practices such as 
satisficing and reduction of effort) will choose “a second-rate article downloaded from 
the Internet instead of requesting a first-rate one via ILL.”20 Porat also summarizes nu-
merous studies on how ILL users evaluate the perceived usefulness of an article before 
they request it. Top methods include reading abstracts and assessing the article title. 
In none of the studies did patrons select articles to request based upon the journals in 
which they were published.21 



Rethinking the Subscription Paradigm for Journals  283

In 2008, Monica Vezzosi studied the information-seeking behavior of doctoral 
students in biology and environmental science, and discovered that students rely on 
a number of different techniques to identify sources that they later borrow via ILL. 
Among those techniques are Internet searches, library databases, and following the 
chain of citations from works already in hand. Two-thirds of the participants report 
that they browse the tables of contents from important journals, to be certain they do 
not “miss anything important.”22 

On the other hand, Allison M. Sutton and JoAnn Jacoby studied library use among 
faculty, staff, and students in four social science disciplines. When compared to baseline 
studies from 1979 and 1989, the 2008 study showed a significant decrease in information-
seeking behavior that centered around journal titles. Users were much less likely to 
have personal subscriptions to journals or to borrow journal issues from colleagues.23 

Examination of ILL data to determine the sources from which ILL requests are 
derived will provide an additional data point to add to this discussion.

Two Studies of ILL Data to Inform Collection Development Decisions
Part 1: Comparison of ILL Requests to Later Usage of the Same Titles as Subscriptions 
A. Methods
At the University of Memphis (UofM), a metropolitan research university with around 
20,000 students, we have a natural experiment available to assess the assumption that 
ILL requests will correlate to later use of the same titles after subscriptions are begun. 
Following a thorough review of our serials portfolio in 2012, UofM initiated several 
hundred new journal subscriptions. The number of ILL requests was one of many data 
points that influenced our choices of new subscriptions. 

For the years prior to the new subscriptions, we captured ILL requests for content 
from the titles in question. Following the onset of new subscriptions, we captured 
usage data. We tested the correlation between the number of ILL requests and the 
number of successful full-text article retrievals (SFTARs) for a large number of titles.

B. Data Set
In 2012, we agreed to begin two new “Big Deal” serials packages, with the publishing 
houses of Sage and Springer. Broadly, the terms of the agreement were that UofM 
agreed to maintain our subscriptions to titles published by Sage and Springer for 
several years. In exchange, Sage and Springer made many other titles available to our 
patrons. Between the two Big Deals, 1,162 new titles became available to UofM patrons 
in 2013. Of those new titles, 169 had been requested via ILL at least once in the years 
2011 and 2012. This data set includes titles in many fields of inquiry and is not arranged 
to emphasize any particular discipline.

For each of those 169 titles, we compiled the number of article requests through 
ILLiad, using a query of ILLiad based on the journal title.24 We also compiled the 
number of SFTARs for the same titles during the years 2013 and 2014. SFTARs were 
gathered using the “click-through” report generated by Serials Solutions 360 Core, 
and by adding those figures to JR1 reports from the publishers’ administration mod-
ules.25 JR1 stands for “Journal Report 1” and relays the number of SFTARs by month 
and journal title.

In addition to comparing ILL requests and SFTARs for each title, we also assigned 
each title a subject category and compared ILL requests and SFTARs for each cat-
egory. Subjects were assigned using our sense of the content in each journal and were 
confirmed or adjusted by comparing the initial subject assignments to the subjects 
assigned by Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory.26 Table 1 displays the data under review in 
each subject category.



284  College & Research Libraries March 2018

C. Statistical Methods
This study involves tests of correlation. Correlation involves documenting the associa-
tion of one variable, or phenomenon, to another. It is known as a “positive correlation” 
when the first variable (instances of a phenomenon happening) increases, and then 
there is a documented increase in the other variable (instances of a second phenomenon 
happening). When the first goes up, and then the second sees an increase as well, there 
is a positive correlation between the two variables or phenomena. An example from 
daily life is the correlation between the number of minutes spent exercising and the 
number of calories burned. Correlation does not necessarily mean that one phenomenon 
causes the other. Tests of causation are different from tests of correlation and demand 
much stricter proofs.

There are a number of tests of correlation, and choosing the appropriate test depends 
upon whether the data set follows a normal (“bell-shaped”) distribution. Distribution 
is a way of describing how the events that are being studied are grouped. Think of a 
set of data that is the heights of all the students in the twelfth grade at a school. There 
will be a small number of students who are less than five feet tall, and more students 

TABLE 1
Subject Categories of Titles Included in the Study

Category ILLiad Requests, 
2011–2012

SFTARs, 
2013–2014

Psychology/Psychiatry/Child-Family Development 37 5,402

Sociology/Political Science/Social Work 36 2,438

Medicine/Physiology/Pharmacology/Nursing 24 2,080

Health/Sports/Epidemiology/Nutrition 23 2,859

Biology (including Genetics) 17 611

Education/Evaluation/Qualitative Review 17 2,990

Engineering/Material Sciences 16 446

Chemistry 6 85

Language/Communication 6 465

Criminology 5 637

Archaeology 5 98

GPS/Built Environment 5 191

Management/Human Resources/Organizational Studies 5 554

Computer Sciences/Simulation/Informatics 5 214

Geology/GIS 5 78

Mathematics/Cryptology 5 82

Religion/Philosophy 5 181

History 3 20

Marketing 2 108

Humanities 2 38

Communication Sciences & Disorders 1 100

Economics 1 70



Rethinking the Subscription Paradigm for Journals  285

whose heights are between 5’0” and 5’6”, a lot of students between 5’6” and 6’0”, and 
progressively fewer students as heights approach seven feet. Plotted on a graph, this 
normal (or Gaussian) distribution will create the “bell curve” that many readers are 
familiar with. Most sets of data fall into the normal distribution, and certain tests of 
correlation are appropriate to use on this kind of data set.

The data set for this study, however, does not follow the normal distribution. Instead, 
there were three categories with a large number of downloads, and the rest had only a 
few downloads. Instead of a bell curve, it would look like a three-humped camel’s back. 
Therefore, statistician George Relyea, our coauthor, advised on the proper tests for our 
study and performed the analysis. In this case, a test called the Kruskal-Wallis test was 
most appropriate. This test looks at a data set that does not have a normal distribution 
and assesses whether the data in the first category (number of ILL requests before the 
subscription began) are correlated with the data in the second category (SFTARs after 
the subscription began).27

D. Results
i. Individual Titles
Our test of correlation found that, for any individual serial title, the number of ILLiad 
requests is only slightly positively correlated to later SFTARs. Complete results are 
found in the endnotes.28

ii. Subject Categories
Our test of correlation found that, within a broad subject category, the number of IL-
Liad requests is strongly positively correlated to later SFTARs. Complete results are 
found in the endnotes.29

Part 2: Exploring the Nature of the Sources of ILL Requests
A. Methods
For the purposes of examining the extent to which desire for information published by 
individual journal titles drives ILL requests, we analyzed a report of article requests 
from patrons placed during the first six weeks of 2013. Using the query function of 
ILLiad, we generated a report showing all article requests. Fields generated included 
“Journal Title” and “Cited In.” The last field may be populated in two ways. For users 
in a database who follow the link resolver to ILLiad, the field is automatically populated 
with the name of the referring database. For users who enter their requests manually, 
it is a free entry field. Visual inspection of the data allowed us to remove cancelled 
requests, book chapters, articles from conference proceedings, and newspapers. We 
also normalized journal titles.

B. Data Set
The final report included 234 article requests placed between January 1 and February 
14, 2013.

C. Results
The 234 articles requested came from 186 journals. Each journal had a mean number 
of 1.26 citations. Two journals had five requests, while 153 journals had only one re-
quest. Table 2 contains complete data on the number of journal titles receiving each 
number of requests.

Of the 234 articles, 154 had data in the “Cited In” field. However, 10 of those were 
from a patron’s RefWorks account. Because the initial source of the RefWorks citations 
is unknown, for purposes of this analysis, those 10 articles are excluded. Therefore, of 



286  College & Research Libraries March 2018

224 articles, 144 (64%) had data in the “Cited In” field. A total of 28 different library 
databases were represented as sources. Seven articles were “Cited In” open web 
searches (Google, PubMed, and the University of Notre Dame domain). Three articles 
were “Cited In” a book or journal article. Table 3 contains complete data on the figures 
for the “Cited In” field.

Discussion
The debate over access and ownership in serials librarianship revolves around the 
question of whether libraries should acquire content provided as bundles of articles 
carrying titles of journals, usually with perpetual access, or rather spend collection 
money on options that provide wide access to many titles, but lack long-term “own-
ership.” The data from ILL requests we have studied provide some evidence that 
patrons’ information-seeking behavior places higher value on the individual article 
than on the journal title.

The common wisdom that librarians should rely upon ILL data to select subscrip-
tions that will be highly used is founded upon a notion that ILL requests will correlate 
positively to later usage. On an individual title level, that notion appears to be ill-

TABLE 2
Number of Journal Titles 

Receiving a Given Number of 
Requests

Number of 
Requests

Number of Journals 
Receiving that 

Number of Requests

1 153 (77%)

2 24 (12%)

3 18 (9%)

4 1 (1%)

5 2 (1%)

FIGURE 1
Percentage of Journal Titles Receiving a 

Given Number of Requests

TABLE 3
Number of Requests 

Originating in Each Source

“Cited in” Source Number of 
Requests

Not Specified 80 (36%)

Library-hosted 
Database

135 (60%)

Open Website 7 (3%)

Citations in Other 
Publications

3 (1%)

FIGURE 2
Percentage of Requests Originating in 

Each Source



Rethinking the Subscription Paradigm for Journals  287

founded. The very slight positive correlation seen in this study is too weak to make any 
claims about a relationship between ILL requests and later SFTARs. Subscriptions to 
individual titles on the basis of ILL requests are not any more likely to see high usage 
than subscriptions selected randomly.

However, within subject categories, the correlation between ILL requests and 
later SFTARs is strong. This implies that collection development librarians may be 
better advised to seek guidance from ILL requests about broad disciplines where the 
library’s serials portfolio needs to be strengthened. This idea is in accord with some of 
the more cautious librarians who have written on the topic. For example, Gary Byrd, 
D.A. Thomas, and Katherine Hughes emphasized the analysis of ILL data to show 
the areas in which a library’s collection is especially deficient.30 Mounir Khalil noted 
that ILL data showing high levels of borrowing in a subject area could provide “good 
justification for asking for funds to correct the weak areas in the library collection.”31

The notion of looking to strengthen access by subject rather than title is reinforced 
by the pattern of ILL requests analyzed by title and by source. UofM by no means 
had a robust collection of individual subscriptions in 2013. In fact, between 1994 and 
2008, a series of cuts had reduced the number of direct subscriptions from more than 
5,000 titles to fewer than 2,000 titles. If individual titles were important, we would 
expect to see many requests for the same title. However, we saw that the vast major-
ity of titles requested were only requested once. Similarly, in the more limited data 
set showing how patrons determined a need to request an article, we see that almost 
all the requested articles were found through patron searches in databases, not from 
existing knowledge of the journal’s importance. This claim is limited, however, by the 
large number of requests for which the patron’s source of information is not known.

For librarians looking to use ILL data to inform serials collection development de-
cisions, title-by-title analysis is unlikely to prove useful. In fact, despite the fact that 
the 169 new journal subscriptions were those that had been requested via ILL prior to 
beginning the subscriptions, the same titles constituted only 5 percent of ILL requests.

However, examination of the larger subject areas that see the most ILL requests 
will provide some insight into disciplines where more subscriptions are likely to see 
high usage. Librarians may be advised to then select a number of titles within that 
subject area, using other important markers such as bibliometric measurements (such 
as impact factor, Eigenfactor, or Source Normalized Impact per Paper [SNIP]) or cita-
tion counts. Alternatively, bundles of titles from either subject specialist publishers or 
larger publishing houses that allow “Medium Deals” of a smaller set of titles within 
a subject area may be desirable.32 

Commercial alternatives to direct subscriptions also exist. Some publishers offer 
“token” or “pay-per-view” programs, which allow a library to purchase preapproved 
access to online articles.33 Also, intermediary services such as Get It Now and Reprints 
Desk offer the ability for a library to purchase articles from publishers who do not offer 
per-article purchasing directly by libraries.34 By offering a broad array of articles from a 
larger number of journal titles, libraries are more likely to meet the information needs 
of their patrons. While this may come at the expense of long-term access to the “most 
important” titles, evidence seems to indicate that the prestige of a journal is only one 
of many factors that influence a patron’s choice to access an article.

(Of course, none of this is to say that librarians should not use individual judgment 
and information provided by faculty members to inform decisions about subscriptions 
to highly important individual journal titles. However, those “core” titles are seldom 
at question in the scenario we describe; rather, librarians have been using ILL data to 
determine what “optional” titles should be subscribed to. Steven Knowlton, Adam 
Sales and Kevin Merriman studied faculty valuation of journal titles as compared to 



288  College & Research Libraries March 2018

bibliometric valuation of the same titles, indicating that core titles are easily identified 
by both faculty and librarians.)35

Conclusion
Much of serials collection development focuses on obtaining the journal subscriptions 
that are most suitable for the library’s patrons. However, examination of ILL data 
calls this approach into question. It is a widely accepted notion that the number of 
ILL requests for an individual title will correlate to usage if the title is later taken on 
subscription by a library. Our test of correlation between ILL requests and SFTARs after 
subscriptions began found no strong correlation. However, it did show that there is a 
strong correlation between ILL requests and SFTARs within a larger subject category. 
Furthermore, examination of the distribution of requests by journal title, and the 
sources from which users found the citations they requested, show that library users 
rely mostly on databases to find material, and draw from widely scattered journal 
titles when making ILL requests. Collection development decisions based upon ILL 
requests are likely to deliver the most useful content when focused on building serials 
portfolios in a subject area, or even providing broad access at the article level, rather 
than on adding individual titles with high numbers of ILL requests. 

Notes

 1. For discussion of the “ownership” versus “access” question, see (among others) Laura 
Kane, “Access vs. Ownership: Do We Have to Make a Choice?” College & Research Libraries 58, no. 
1 (1997): 59–67; Robert Lawson and Patricia Lawson, “Libraries in a Bind: Ownership Versus Ac-
cess,” Journal of Consumer Affairs 36, no. 2 (2002): 295–96; Jeffrey M. Mortimore, “Access-Informed 
Collection Development and the Academic Library: Using Holdings, Circulation, and ILL Data 
to Develop Prescient Collections,” Collection Management 30, no. 3 (2005): 21–37.

 2. Eugene E. Graziano, “Interlibrary Loan Analysis: Diagnostic for Scientific Serials Backfile 
Acquisitions,” Special Libraries 53, no. 5 (1962): 251.

 3. Doris E. New and Retha Zane Ott, “Interlibrary Loan Analysis as a Collection Development 
Tool,” Library Resources and Technical Services 18, no. 2 (1974): 282; Brian W. Williams and Joan 
G. Hubbard, “Interlibrary Loan and Collection Management Applications of an ILL Database 
Management System,” Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery and Information Supply 1, no. 
3 (1991): 68. 

 4. Elena Bernardini, “The Relationship between ILL/Document Supply and Journal Subscrip-
tions,” Interlending and Document Supply 39, no. 1 (2011): 19.

 5. Herbert S. White, “Interlibrary Loan: An Old Idea in a New Setting,” Library Journal (July 
1987): 54.

 6. Peggy Johnson, Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management (Chicago: American 
Library Association, 2004), 107.

 7. White, “Interlibrary Loan,” 54. 
 8. Williams and Hubbard, “Interlibrary Loan and Collection Management Applications,” 68.
 9. Stephen J. Bensman and Stanley J. Wilder, “Scientific and Technical Serials Holdings Op-

timization in an Inefficient Market: A LSU Serials Redesign Project Exercise,” Library Resources 
and Technical Services 42, no. 3 (1998): 189–90.

10. Judith Nixon, “Core Journals in Library and Information Science: Developing a Methodol-
ogy for Ranking LIS Journals,” College & Research Libraries 75, no. 1 (2014): 66–90.

11. Stanley J. Wilder, “A Simple Method for Producing Core Scientific and Technical Journal 
Title Lists,” Library Resources and Technical Services 44, no. 2 (2000): 92.

12. See, for example, Thomas L. Kilpatrick and Barbara G. Preece, “Serial Cuts and Interlibrary 
Loan: Filling the Gaps,” Interlending & Document Supply 24, no. 1 (1996): 12–20; Janet Hughes, 
“Can Document Delivery Compensate for Reduced Serials Holdings? A Life Sciences Library 
Perspective,” College & Research Libraries (1997): 421–31; Michele J. Crump and Leilani Freund, 
“Serials Cancellations and Interlibrary Loan: The Link and What It Reveals,” Serials Review 21, no. 
2 (1995): 29–36; Eleanor Gossen and Sue Kaczor, “Variation in Interlibrary Loan Use by University 
at Albany Science Departments,” Library Resources & Technical Services 41, no. 1 (1997): 17–28; 
Gale Etschmaier and Marifran Bustion, “Document Delivery and Collection Development: An 



Rethinking the Subscription Paradigm for Journals  289

Evolving Relationship,” Serial Librarian 31, no. 3 (1997): 13–27; Andrea L. Duda and Rosemary 
L. Meszaros, “Validating Journal Cancellation Decisions in the Sciences: A Report Card,” Issues 
in Science & Technology Librarianship (1998), available online at www.istl.org/98-summer/article4.
html [accessed 2 March 2016]; Jonathon Nabe and David C. Fowler, “Leaving the ‘Big Deal’: 
Consequences and Next Steps,” Serials Librarian 62, no. 1/4 (2012): 59–72; Kristen Calvert, Rachel 
Fleming, and Katherine Hill, “Impact of Journal Cancellations on Interlibrary Loan Demand,” 
Serials Review 39, no. 3 (2013): 184–87; Wayne A. Pedersen, Janet Arcand, and Mark Forbis, “The 
Big Deal, Interlibrary Loan, and Building the User-Centered Journal Collection: A Case Study,” 
Serial Review 40 (2014): 242–50.

13. Elizabeth P. Roberts, “ILL/Document Delivery as an Alternative to Local Ownership of 
Seldom-Used Scientific Journals,” Journal of Academic Librarianship 18, no. 1 (1992): 32.

14. Steven A. Knowlton, Iulia Kristanciuk, and Matthew J. Jabaily, “Spilling Out of the Fun-
nel: How Reliance upon Interlibrary Loan Affects Access to Information,” Library Resources and 
Technical Services 59, no. 1 (2015): 4.

15. Graziano, “Interlibrary Loan Analysis,” 256.
16. T.D. Wilson, “Follow-up on Interlibrary Loan Analysis,” Special Libraries 53 (1962): 493–94.
17. Mary Dabney Wilson and Whitney Alexander, “Automated Interlibrary Loan/Document 

Delivery Data Applications for Serials Collection Development,” Serials Review 25, no. 4 (1999): 
17.

18. Paoshan W. Yue and Millie L. Syring, “Usage of Electronic Journals and Their Effect on 
Interlibrary Loan: A Case Study at the University of Nevada, Reno,” Library Collections, Acquisi-
tions, and Technical Services 28, no. 4 (2004): 429.

19. The most current research is summarized in Information Seeking Behavior and Technology 
Adoption: Theories and Trends, eds. Mohammed Nasser Al-Suqri and Ali Saif Al-Aufi (Hershey, Pa.: 
Information Science Reference, 2015) and Donald O. Case and Lisa M. Given, Looking for Informa-
tion: A Survey of Research on Information Seeking, Needs, and Behavior (Bingley, U.K.: Emerald, 2016).

20. Lynne Porat, “Interlibrary Loans and Academic Research: The Differences between Users 
and Non-Users and Factors Affecting Satisfaction with Outcomes” (PhD diss., Bar-Ilan University, 
2008), 29.

21. Porat, “Interlibrary Loans and Academic Research,” 41–47.
22. Monica Vezzosi, “Doctoral Students’ Information Behaviour: An Exploratory Study at the 

University of Parma (Italy),” New Library World 110, no. 1/2 (2009): 71.
23. Allison M. Sutton and JoAnn Jacoby, “A Comparative Study of Book and Journal Use in 

Four Social Science Disciplines,” Behavioral and Social Sciences Librarian 27, no. 1 (2008): 1–33.
24. ILLiad is a resource sharing management system that aggregates requests from differ-

ing systems (such as OCLC and Docline) into a single interface for staff and users. ILLiad was 
developed at Virginia Tech and is marketed by OCLC (Dublin, Ohio).

25. Serials Solutions 360 Core is an OpenURL link resolver service available through ProQuest 
(Ann Arbor, Mich.); JR1 is a COUNTER-compliant report of SFTARs.

26. Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory, 53rd ed. (New Providence, N.J.: R.R. Bowker, 2015).
27. To assess the differences between ILLiad requests and SFTARs, we performed a one-way 

analysis of variance using a nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test. All analysis was conducted us-
ing SAS version 9.4 (Cary, N.C.). Because the data do not follow normal distribution, we used a 
Spearman’s rank correlation to test the strength of the correlation between the number of ILLiad 
requests and later downloads. This nonparametric test is appropriate for our data set because of 
the extreme variability in the number of downloads. 

28. For the comparison of ILLiad requests to SFTARs by individual journal title, ρ = 0.30, P 
< 0.0001, where ρ = rho, the measure of correlation and P is the level of significance. A P-value 
closer to zero denotes that the measure in the statistical test [correlation] has a high probability 
of being valid in similar situations. In this case, you would have to analyze more than 10,000 
similar data sets before encountering a situation where no correlation existed.

29. The Kruskal-Wallis test revealed significant differences between subject categories on the 
number of downloads, C2 (22) = 67.240, P < 0.001. The three categories of Health/Sports/Epidemi-
ology/Nutrition, Psychology/Psychiatry/Child-Family Development, and Education/Evaluation/
Qualitative Review were significantly higher than all of the other categories. These fields of study 
are among the most populous on the UofM campus. When assessing the association between 
ILLiad requests and total SFTARs by subject, we found a marginally positive association, Spear-
man ρ = 0.303, P < 0.001. When aggregating subject categories into broader categories (see table 
1), we found a stronger, positive association, Spearman ρ = 0.867, P < 0.001.

30. Gary D. Byrd, D.A. Thomas, and Katherine E. Hughes, “Collection Development Using 
Interlibrary Loan Borrowing and Acquisitions Statistics,” Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 
70 (1982): 1–9.

31. Mounir A. Khalil, “Applications of an Automated ILL Statistical Analysis as a Collection 



290  College & Research Libraries March 2018

Development Tool,” Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery & Information Supply 4, no. 1 
(1993): 49.

32. See, for example, Nabe and Fowler, “Leaving the ‘Big Deal’.” 
33. For discussion of token or pay-per-view programs, see Clint Chamberlain and Barbara 

MacAlpine, “Pay-Per-View Article Access: A Viable Replacement for Subscriptions?” Serials 21, 
no. 1 (2008): 30–34; Marty Coleman, “Toward Improved ROI: Outcomes of Researching Cur-
rent Pay-Per-View Practices,” Against the Grain 28, no. 1 (2016): 54; and Matthew J. Jabaily, James 
R. Rodgers, and Steven A. Knowlton, “Leveraging Use-by-Publication-Age Data in Serials Col-
lection Decisions,” in Where Do We Go from Here? Proceedings of the 2015 Charleston Conference, eds. 
Beth R. Bernhardt, Leah H. Hinds, and Katina P. Strauch (West Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University 
Press, 2016), 292–302, doi: 10.5703/1288284316271.

34. For discussion of intermediary services, see Karl F. Suhr, “Get It Now: One Library’s Experi-
ence with Implementing and Using the Unmediated Version of the Copyright Clearance Center’s 
Document Delivery Service,” Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship 25, no. 4 (2013): 321–25; 
Megan Jaskowiak and Todd Spires, “The Usage of ILLiad and Get It Now at a US Medium-Sized 
Academic Library over a Three-Year Period,” Interlending & Document Supply 44, no. 2 (2016): 81–87; 
“Reprints Desk Launches Academic Document Delivery Service,” Advanced Technology Libraries 
42, no. 6 (2013): 10; and Gail Perkins Barton, forthcoming article on Reprints Desk, in process.

35. Steven A. Knowlton, Adam C. Sales, and Kevin W. Merriman, “A Comparison of Faculty 
and Bibliometric Valuation of Serials Subscriptions at an Academic Research Library,” Serials 
Review 40, no. 1 (2014): 28–39.