ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


958 /  C& RL News

Tracking periodical usage in a research library

By Josephine King Evans

Director, Florida M ental H ealth In stitu te L ibrary 
University o f  South Florida

B ecause spiraling subscription costs necessi­
ta te d  an annual evaluation o f journals at th e U ni­
versity o f South F lo rid a’s F lorida M ental H ealth 
Institute, in 1987 th e  research c e n te r library staff 
began m onitoring journal usage w ith th e aid o f 
com puters. T h e In stitu te, located on th e T am pa 
cam pus, has a staff o f 300 and specializes in devel­
oping new  tre a tm e n t strategies for th e  m entally ill 
and providing m odernized training to stren g th en  
m ental h ealth services th ro u g h o u t Florida. In  su p ­
p o rt o f this mission, th e  research c e n te r library 
collection includes m anuscripts, research reports, 
8,000 m onographs, 4,000 u n b o u n d  periodicals, 
and 130 c u rre n t jo u rn al subscriptions.

Articles in library literatu re have explored th e 
issues at length, focusing on in c re ase d  prices, 
evaluation o f serials, and m ethods o f elim inating 
titles from  periodical subscription lists. In  his 1985 
exam ination o f rising prices S tephen J. Bensm an 
advised th a t from  1967 to 1984, th e  average cost o f 
an A m erican periodical had risen 534.8% .1 A. K. 
K undu and R. R. Sinha included foreign journals in 
th e ir 1989 study, in w hich th ey  a ttrib u te d  rising 
costs to inflation, th e fluctuating exchange rate, and 
growing p roduction costs.2

Again in 1989, Jam ie W eb ste r H astreiter con­
trib u ted  additional d ata indicating th a t price in ­
creases w ere m ore th an  5 tim es th e  inflation rate. 
H a stre ite r also advanced th e  following causes: 
“twigging” by publishers th a t creates new  titles, th e  
“publish or p erish ” ph en o m en o n , an d  th e  n e e d  o f 
authors to build th e ir reputations by subm itting 
variant versions o f m aterial to several journals.3 So

S te p h e n  J. Bensm an, “Journal C ollection M an­
agem ent as a C um ulative A dvantage P rocess,” 
College & Research Libraries 46 (January 1985): 
13-29.

2A. K. K undu and R. R. Sinha, “Price H ike on 
Periodicals and T h eir Im pact on Subscriptions,” 
H erald o f  L ibrary Science 28 (January-April 1989): 
41-49.

3Jamie W ebster H astreiter, “G uidelines for P eri­
odical Acquisition and B udget C ontrol: An O ver­
view o f Selection and D eselection in th e  Sm aller 
Academic Library,” in G erard  B. M cC abe, ed., 
Operations H andbook f o r  the Small A cadem ic L i­
brary (W estport, Conn.: G reenw ood Press, 1989), 
229-38.

serious is this m a tte r o f rising costs th a t th e  Associa­
tion o f R esearch L ibraries recently cre a te d  th e 
Office for Scientific and A cadem ic Publishing to 
study th e  p ro b lem .4

To identify journals th a t should b e retained, 
R o b ert N. B roadus reco m m en d ed  in 1985 using 
citation counts as found in Journal C itation R e­
ports, and h e addressed th e  “exception to th e  ru le ” 
p ro b lem  by providing a rationale for retaining 
som e little-cited titles.5 Paul M etz and C harles A. 
L itchfield in clu d ed  c u rre n t serials in th e ir use 
study o f th e  overall collection at Virginia T ech in 
1988, and C harm aine B. Tom czyk recently dis­
cussed use studies as a m eans to  in select journals 
for a small academ ic library.6

Placing dots on journals, stapling use statistics 
sheets to periodicals, d irect observation, and dis­
trib u tin g  p atro n  surveys random ly are m ethods 
th a t have b e e n  em ployed to m onitor p atro n  use, 
according to Tomczyk. She cited  a U niversity o f 
Chicago study th a t entailed concealing ballpoint 
pens and questionnaires in selected jo u rn al issues 
w ith a re q u e st for th e  finders to w rite in th e ir 
answers on th e  surveys and keep th e  pens. Even 
w ithout a co m p leted  questionnaire, library staff 
was able to tab u late p atro n  use based upon th e 
missing pens. Also in fre q u e n t use is th e  “sw eep” 
p ro ced u re, w hich involves tallying journals left on 
tables by u sers.7

T h e “sw eep” m ethod, co m b in ed  w ith th e  inclu­
sion o f m isshelved journals and interlibrary loan 
use, was selected by th e  U S F  research c e n te r for

4“N ew  ARL Office D irects R esearch and C o n ­
cern  O ver Serials Pricing,” L ib ra ry Journal 114 
(D e c e m b e r 1989): 28.

5R o b ert N. Broadus, “A P roposed M eth o d  for 
E lim inating Titles from  Periodical Subscription 
Lists,” College & Research Libraries 46 (January 
1985): 30-35.

6Paul M etz and C harles A. Litchfield, “M easur­
ing C ollections Use at Virginia T ech ,” College & 
Research Libraries 49 (N ovem ber 1988): 501-513.

7C harm aine B. Tomczyk, “F aculty and L ib rar­
ian P articipation in Selecting Journals for a Small 
A cadem ic L ibrary,” in G e ra rd  B. M cC abe, ed., 
O perations H andbook f o r  the Small Academ ic L i­
brary (W estport, Conn.: G reenw ood Press, 1989), 
239-57.



November 1 9 9 0 1 959

the following reasons. First, it was not difficult to 
secure th e cooperation o f library users because the 
USF research cen ter psychiatrists, psychologists, 
and o th er m ental health practitioners are library- 
oriented and very aware o f rising journal costs. 
Second, because th e research cen ter library has a 
staff o f four— one full-tim e professional, two full­
tim e paraprofessionals, and one graduate assis­
tan t— it was necessary to utilize a p rocedure th at 
was not heavily labor-intensive; various ways o f 
m arking journals, distributing patron surveys, or 
direct observation w ould not have b een  feasible.

O nce th e choice was m ade, th e following p ro ce­
dure was im plem ented. D uring th e day, any jo u r­
nals th a t are found anywhere within th e library are 
brought to the circulation desk. Available library 
staff records th e usage for each journal, with tally 
marks on a weekly data collection sheet th a t lists all 
cu rren t journal subscriptions. T he item s are th en  
placed on a reshelving cart. At th e en d  o f every 
m onth, th e total o f these weekly tally records is 
com bined with interlibrary loan statistics and in­
serted into a Lotus 1-2-3 com puter spreadsheet. 
Form ulas automatically com pute th e usage for the

year to date, and printouts are provided to any 
in terested  patron.

Adm inistrators and d ep artm en t chairs regularly 
review th e m onthly journal usage, and these statis­
tics serve a useful purpose. C om bined with reports 
o f periodical subscription increases supplied by the 
librarian and updates o f th e ongoing research proj­
ects o f th e Institute staff, journal usage statistics 
help to determ ine which subscriptions will be can­
celed and which ones added in th e next fiscal year. 
T h ere are no funding surprises, and th e re is no 
req u irem en t for a w ritten justification for a periodi­
cal budget increase from th e  librarian. Also, by 
involving faculty and staff in th e project, they ac­
quired a vested interest, and “th e ” library becam e 
“o u r” library. Unwittingly, th e library staff m ade a 
positive contribution to public relations with li­
brary patrons. Indeed, perhaps this enhanced col­
legiality has b een  th e most valued result o f all.

By refining th e data collection sheets and adding 
categories for th e next fiscal year, th e research 
c e n te r library staff plans to study additional aspects 
o f periodical usage.

Access to serials: Local improvements 
may make a difference

By David Trithart

Reference Librarian 
Potsdam College o f  SU N Y

Every library has a lim ited list o f serials to which 
it subscribes. Beyond th a t it relies on interlibrary 
loan or some o th er means to obtain articles for its 
patrons. Most libraries have seen th e use o f this 
service expand in recen t years. T he n u m b e r o f 
journals grows and th e proportion rep resen te d  in 
th e local collection inexorably falls. It is com monly 
believed th at th e advent o f indexes on C D  will 
contribute to th e dem and for articles not in th e 
local collection.

W hat alternative is th e re  to increased reliance 
on borrowing or docum ent delivery services? W e 
d eterm in ed  to try to im prove access to th e journals 
we already receive. Like many libraries, we re ­
cently introduced com pact disk indexes and have 
seen th e ir use grow quickly. W e also noticed that 
th e re rem ained a bottleneck in th e search process. 
Checking th e citations obtained so quickly from the 
C D  had to be done manually in th e library’s serials

list. T he first rem edy th a t occurred to us was to 
som ehow m atch the journals on th e C D  with a list 
o f those we receive, and have our titles highlighted 
or otherwise noted on th e screen.

W e have suggested this to C D  producers, and 
th e re  is some expressed interest, b u t nothing to 
show for it yet. Since we catalog our serials and 
shelve th em  by call n u m b er we w ould n eed  to 
show, in addition to th e holdings o f a title, th e call 
num ber, in theory this should be possible since we, 
like m ost libraries, have o u r serials and holdings in 
m achine-readable form. T he screen display for 
each citation could include local holdings inform a­
tion obtained from th at list.

But this d id n ’t seem  to be an im m ediate possibil­
ity. A less au to m ated  approach was, however, 
within th e range o f our abilities. Using Microsoft 
Works (a simple, w idely-used database program ) 
on a M acintosh com puter, we produced a database