ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 62 6 /C&RL News Im plications of com m ercial document d e liv e ry By Bill C oons an d P eter McDonald Criteria fo r substituting electronic journals f o r paper ones T he evolution o f technology in the past de­cade has forced a radical reappraisal in the way academic libraries view their collec­ tions. This is especially true in light o f the emerging definition o f what constitutes a col­ lection in the electronic environment. While libraries have long used document delivery via interlibrary loan as a means to provide access to materials not locally held, few of them have addressed commercial document delivery ser­ vices from a broad collection development per­ spective. U se s o f c o m m e rc ia l d o c u m e n t d e liv e ry Successful commercial document delivery ser­ vices are transparent to users, contribute to the quality of scholarship and research, remain cost- effective, and do not detract from a library’s essential mission o f collecting materials com­ prehensively for current or potential future use. There are four key areas where commercial document delivery (CDD) clearly impacts col­ lection development. CDD may be used: 1) as a selection tool to assist in the deci­ sion to acquire new subscriptions. Annual docu­ ment delivery requests for a specific title can be recorded and if the cost of CDD is more than half the subscription cost, a subscription should be considered; 2) in lieu of new subscriptions when CDD will improve access to journals which are too expensive or too select to justify purchasing; 3) in lieu of current subscriptions— cancel ing low-use, high-expense titles (after histori­ cal value is considered). Shifting the cost from purchasing (and processing) a journal title to purchasing journal articles should be done only if significant savings result; and 4) to supplement current interlibrary loan service in cases requiring immediate delivery, for selected items at the bindery, or for those requests where “fair use” has been exhausted. C o m m e rc ia l d o c u m e n t d e liv e r y in a c a d e m ic lib ra rie s: C a v e a ts Financial pressures and the drive for leaner and meaner organizations that can flourish in an era o f change have meant that even major re­ search libraries cannot be as all-encompassing as they once were in their collection develop­ ment efforts. The nature of research collections is changing: librarians are looking beyond own­ ership and considering access to external elec­ tronic resources and com mercial document delivery services as a means to augment on site collections. Research libraries are obligated to protect a broad and deep historical record of intellectual activity for researchers of future generations, and selectors must ensure that the historical record of current, little-used journals survives— either at their library or at other research insti­ tutions which can be trusted to preserve the record indefinitely (journals that are considered marginal today may be the most sought after by researchers in the future). There are legiti­ mate concerns regarding the effects of CDD on the long-term ability of libraries to provide ac­ cess to information needed for instruction and research: if unwisely applied, the use o f CDD Bill Coons is head o f public services and collection development at the Hotel School Library o f Cornell University; e-mail: wwc3@courierl.sha.cornell.edu. Peter McDonald is head librarian o f the Geneva Experiment Station Library o f Cornell University; e-mail: peter_mcdonald@gmrelay.mail.comell.edu mailto:wwc3@courierl.sha.comell.edu mailto:peter_mcdonald@gmrelay.mail.comell.edu October 1 9 9 5 /6 2 7 to replace subscriptions could do significant long-term damage to the research value of a collection, and if an institution embarks on a major program of substituting document deliv­ ery for subscriptions, they should first seek firm agreements with peer institutions ensuring that the subscriptions canceled in one location will be preserved elsewhere. Close monitoring and formal reviews are also necessary to assure cost- effectiveness and a collection’s historical integ­ rity. Selectors and reference librarians must con­ sider the needs of patrons and address issues involving access equity, costs and payment strat­ egies, staff training, cross-divisional coopera­ tion (among acquisitions, ILS, reference, tech­ nical services, circulation, and selectors), and timely communications with both staff and pa­ trons before CDD is implemented. C riteria a n d g u id e lin e s fo r selectors Selectors should consider the uses o f the col­ lection and the trends in university research and education ás they evaluate either cancel­ ing existing subscriptions or not entering new ones. CDD should not be considered as a full- scale replacement for traditional ILS and sub­ scriptions to highly valued and much-used jour­ nal titles should not be replaced by CDD. There must be communication between selectors and their constituencies before any effort is made to replace traditional sources in favor o f CDD. There are several criteria which a selector can use to determine if CDD is an appropriate substitute for print-based journal subscriptions. Three primary criteria are use, costs, and his­ torical value; secondary criteria include lan­ guage, geography, publisher type, accessibil­ ity, and copyright and licensing. P rim ary crite ria Use: • immediacy o f need • amount o f use • importance o f browsing • political implications (e.g., is it likely to adversely affect a powerful department chair?) Costs: • Selectors need to contrast and balance the real and hidden costs o f a subscription against CDD. For instance, does it cost more money to buy a subscription to a seldom-used title than to get copies o f selected articles? CDD becomes attractive when there is low journal use and high subscription costs. It should be noted that subscriptions involve various “hid­ den” costs including cataloging, processing, binding, and shelving. Indeed, the storage costs for shelf space should be included, as should the staff costs o f processing and accounting. • For CDD to be economically effective, total CDD costs for all requests for one title must be less than the total for the real and hid­ den costs o f a journal subscription (within a prescribed time period). Another way of look­ ing at this is that if the total costs o f CDD for one title are less than the cost of a subscrip­ tion, the need for maintaining a subscription to that title should be reevaluated. H istorical value: • Selectors should consider if a title being canceled is being archived in a sister institu­ tion. The length o f a serial am should be known and whether or not it can be reasonably as­ sured o f an institution’s commitment to main­ taining a subscription in perpetuity. • Relevancy of the subject matter to the current and long-term research and educational needs o f the university. • Uniqueness and value o f the title (is it central to a discipline or peripheral?). S econ d ary criteria L an gu age: • Selectors for predominately English-lan guage collections might use CDD to support their minimal foreign language material needs. G eography: • CDD may not be as appropriate for a collection that concentrates on one area, re­ gion or country. P u blish er type: • As a cost-saving approach, CDD may be more appropriate as a substitute for higher priced titles. O f the four major types o f pub­ lishers available to libraries, the most expen­ sive are the commercial operators and the least are government agencies. In between lay the society/organization (expensive) and the uni­ versity (relatively inexpensive) publishers. A ccessibility: • It should be ascertained how else a jour­ nal title might be accessed. Is it available elec­ tronically? Is it part o f a CD-ROM system such as UMI’s ProQuest ABI/Inform? 6 2 8 /C&RL News Copyright/Licensing: • It is assumed that any library will only use those CDD services which are cognizant of and responsible for copyright issues. Selectors must keep these issues in mind and be aware of possible problems. P a y m e n t In an ideal world individuals would not have to incur direct costs for using library resources and services. While there are important philo­ sophical questions in this regard, prudent use o f a library’s limited funds suggests that aca­ demic libraries must find a common ground with regard to payment. CDD could be paid for through centralized funds, as many librar­ ies now subsidize ILS, and selectors could use some of their regularly allocated acquisition funds to purchase materials through CDD. In this model, cost of staffing to provide for CDD and ILS would remain part o f general operat­ ing expenses. Other payment models are possible, and to maintain control over the cost of CDD it makes sense to implement one or more of the follow­ ing user fee policies: • Users pay additional costs for rush ser­ vices. • Users fund a portion o f CDD either by paying a low flat fee for each article requested or by paying costs over a certain amount. • If the cost of a document is more than a predetermined amount, users should be in­ formed of the price and asked if the item is important enough to justify the cost (o f course, this is practical only if the CDD request is me­ diated). Another method might involve a ques­ tion on a request form used by the patron which asks the patron to check a box indicating the maximum amount of money that should be spent to acquire the article. Whatever mechanism is used to purchase documents, the billing and accounting paper­ work must be kept to a reasonable level. Con­ sideration must be given to the impact on staff­ ing levels o f ILS and/or acquisitions should document delivery requests increase the over­ all amount o f work. C h e cklist o f c o m m e rc ia l d o cu m e n t d e liv e ry issu e s Before embracing or rejecting CDD, academic libraries might answer these questions: A) W hat is y o u r library’s relationship to and p h ilosop h y regarding CDD services? October 1 9 9 5 /6 2 9 • Should your library begin to rely on CDD services? • Is there sufficient in-house infrastructure to rely on CDD services? • To what extent should your library rely on CDD services? • How can your library better explore new document delivery technologies? B) W hat CDD o p tio n s are available? • Which vendors provide on-demand ser­ vices for the purchase o f individual journal ar­ ticles? • Which journals are offered by CDD ven­ dors? • What delivery services are provided? • What are the comparative costs o f differ­ ent vendors? • Which vendors are being used now by peer institutions? • What have been other institution’s reac­ tions? C) W hat is th e relatio n sh ip o f CDD services to selecto rs an d th e collections? • Could selectors begin to use CDD ser­ vices as a substitute for certain subscriptions? • Under what circumstances, and with what criteria, should selectors make these decisions? • Should selectors use CDD services as a selection tool, especially for new titles? D) W h o should p ay fo r CDD services? • Should CDD services be funded from a single materials budget? • Should CDD services be self-supporting and funded directly by users or by departments? • Should CDD services be supported from a variety of funding sources? E ) W hat are th e effects o f CDD o n th e lon g te rm ability o f acad em ic libraries to p ro ­ vide a ccess to in form ation needed by us­ e rs fo r in stru ction and research ? • What would be the effects o f a substitu­ tion of delivery services for subscriptions on the long-term capacity o f the library to support local long-term instruction and research needs? • If there are any detrimental effects, what steps might be taken to minimize them? 63 0 /C&RL News The world of Metals and Materials just got a little smaller. Now on CD-ROM. The most comprehensive, Easy to navigate. up-to-date source of global information. Get instant access (with no time limits or Imagine—fixed-cost, instant access penalties.) Switch effortlessly between two to the most complete and up-to-date extremely flexible search methods. Search collection of world literature on metals conference papers by title, location, sponsor or year! Sort your search by title, journal, and engineered materials. 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The Institute of Materials is registered with Charity #269275. October 1 9 95/631 C o n c lu sio n Implementation o f CDD has much to offer financially strapped aca­ demic libraries and should be vig­ orously explored. With a coher­ ent CDD policy, most selectors and collection development personnel will find it helpful in providing a v alu e-ad d ed s erv ice to users. Implementation need not, initially, be systemwide, but might profit­ ably be explored by smaller units with genre or subject selectors. If enough people within an institu­ tion elect to use CDD, a central­ ized mechanism to coordinate the process may be necessary. In the long term, academic li­ braries should examine whether emerging technologies might ob­ viate the need for CDD altogether, notably in the arena o f networked user-initiated ILL. Libraries should seek out the expertise o f partners on campus (such as campus stores, print shops, computing centers, etc.) to examine the opportunities offered by emerging technologies. A u th o r s ’ n ote: This article is based on an internal document prepared for the Cornell Univer­ sity Library. The authors wish to thank these colleagues for their significant contributions: G. David Brumberg, Phil Dankert, Patricia O ’Neill, and Scott Wicks. R e so u rc e s Braid, J. Andrew. “Electronic Document Deliv­ ery: A Reality at Last?” ASLIB P roceed in g s 45 (June 1993): 161– 66. Boethem, Jeri Van. “Whether by Byte or by Tome, Buying Information Is Acquisitions.” L ib rary A cquisitions: P ra c tic e & Theory 17 (fall 1993): 359–62. Higginbotham, Barbara Buckner, and Sally Bow doin. A ccess Versus Assets: A C om prehen sive G u id e to R esou rce S harin g f o r A c a d e m ic Libraries. Chicago: ALA, 1993. Jackson, Mary E. “Library to Library: Iinterlibrary Loan, Document Delivery and Resource Shar­ ing.” Wilson L ibrary B ulletin 68 (September 1993): 76– 78. Khalil, Mounir. “Document Delivery: A Better Option?” L ibrary J o u r n a l 118 (February 1, 1993): 43– 47. Kurosman, Kathleen, and Barbara Ammerman ' Durniak. “Document Delivery: A Compari­ son o f Commercial Document Suppliers and Interlibrary Loan Services.” C ollege a n d R esearch L ib raries 55 (March 1994): 129– 39. Lewis, Martha. “Document Delivery Vendors: Benefits and Choices.” Serials L ib ra ria n 23 (1993): 217– 24. Roberts, Elizabeth P. “ILL/Document Delivery As an Alternative to Local Ownership of Seldom-Used Scientific Journals. " Jo u r n a l o f A c a d e m ic L ih rarian sh ip 18 (March 1992): 30– 34. Zipp, Louise S., and Kathryn Kjaer. “An Alterna­ tive to Ownership o f Scientific Journals in University Research Library Collections." In Mary B. Ansari, ed. fr o n t ie r s o f G eo scien ce In form ation , P roceed in g s o f the 24th M eeting o f th e G eo scien ce In fo rm a tio n Society, St. Louis, Missouri, 6 - 9 N ov em ber 1989, Vol­ ume 20, pp. 141– 56. ■