ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 3 22 / C&RL News Conference Circuit Electronic dissemination of full-text journal articles B y N ic h o la s C. B u rck el CARL, Elsevier, a n d EBSCO share their p la n s fo r electronic p ublish­ ing a n d d o cu m en t delivery A t ALA’S M idwinter m eeting EBSCO heldan o th er in its Executive Seminar Series, p resen ted to directors of the A ssociation search Libraries and dealing w ith electronic stor­ age an d dissem ination o f full-text journal ar­ ticles. T he evening’s speakers w ere W ard Shaw, chief executive officer o f CARL Systems, Inc.; Karen Hunter, vice-president and assistant to the chairman, Elsevier Science Publishers; and Tim Collins, general manager of EBSCO Publishing. Uncover 2 W ard Shaw ’s o p ening rem arks traced the re­ cent history of Uncover 2. CARL Systems, Inc. b e g a n providing a journal table o f contents service less than three years ago. Instead o f having ven d o rs mail journals directly to su p ­ plying libraries in the D enver area, u n d er a new program called Uncover, journals are first sent to CARL’s D enver office. W ithin 24 hours o f receipt, tables o f contents are en tered into Un­ cover, an online database o f nearly tw o million article titles from 12,000 different journals. Jo u r­ nals are th en sen t to ow ning libraries “shelf- ready” w ithin 24 hours. T he database is search­ able by author, title, subject, an d key w ord. W ithin the p ast several m onths CARL has u n ­ veiled Uncover 2. CARL has d ev elo p ed the ca­ pability o f scanning articles, m oving th e bit­ m a p p e d im ages over netw orks, an d ending in a faxed co p y in a u se r’s hands w ithin 24 hours. H ere’s h o w it w orks. Library patrons pull u p Uncover 2 on the terminal, search for n eed ed articles, th en are offered the option o f having o the article faxed to them . The online system p ro m p ts p atro n s th ro u g h a series o f screen options, allow ing th em to o rd er items through a credit card, m uch as they m ight d o for mail order purchases. A perso n is electronically co n ­ tacted at a library holding the journals; the item is retrieved, scanned, an d sent to D enver w here it is th en faxed to th e user. Shaw n o te d that, w ith the p ublisher’s p e r­ f Rme­ission, CARL can retain the article in machine- readable form for su b seq u en t distribution, re­ ducing the time for future patrons to receive the sam e article to less th an o n e hour. So far som e 368 publishers have w o rk ed out agree­ m ents w ith CARL. T he cost? T he standard fee for th e service is $6.50 p e r article plus a copy­ right fee. That fee is set by the p ublisher and ap p ears o n th e screen along w ith the service fee so that users kn o w exactly h o w m uch an article will cost. O ne satisfied user is the University o f H a­ w aii at M anoa. Library staff to o k five article requests to their interlibrary loan departm ent an d fo u n d that it to o k an average o f tw o w eeks to obtain the n e e d e d m aterial at an average out-of-pocket expense o f $8 p e r item. T hey sub­ m itted the sam e requests through Uncover 2. O ne article arrived w ithin tw o hours, three more in 24 hours, an d th e fifth in 25 hours. The aver­ age cost w as roughly equal to that for ILL. As exciting as this m ay sound, CARL’s Shaw sees Uncover 2 as transitional. Electronic and online journals are just beginning to b e tested. With netw orks facilitating a less structured ex­ change o f inform ation am ong researchers, even the co n cep t o f journals m ay b e transform ed. Tulip T he future o f journal publishing w as very m uch the co ncern o f the evening’s seco n d speaker, K aren H unter o f Elsevier. H unter reported on Nicholas C. Burckel is, assistant dean f o r collection a n d services a t Washington University Libraries M ay 1992 / 3 23 four different w ays p u b lish ers are d ealin g w ith electronic storage a n d u se o f journal articles. For a n u m b e r o f years science p u b lish ers have b e e n distributing full text w ith o u t graphics elec­ tronically th ro u g h STN. B ecause o f th e loss o f im p o rtan t graphics, h ow ever, u sers see su ch access as a surrogate, n o t a su b stitu te for th e co m p lete article. A nother m e th o d o f distribution has involved CD-ROM collections o f b it-m ap p ed articles from selected journals, a n a p p ro a c h e m p lo y e d by UMI. A d o n is is a d o cu m en t delivery service sold o n subscription, em ploying a sim ilar ap p ro ach . It is a CD-ROM collection o f articles from 360 bio m ed ical journals from 30 different p u b lish ­ ers, a n d th e su b sc rip tio n p rice is a b o u t te n p e rc e n t o f the list price o f th e p a p e r co p y o f th e journals plus a charge for e a c h co p y m ade. P u b lish e rs m ay also g ra n t p e rm iss io n to o th e r organizations th at req u est electronic ac­ cess to pro v id e d o c u m e n t delivery. A lthough n o t m an y large p u b lish ers h av e y et ag reed to p ro v id e that access, Elsevier’s H unter thinks that w ill change. She cited U ncover 2 as o n e su c­ cessful collaboration. P ublishers are also u su ­ ally w illing to perm it co rp o rate u se o f th e elec­ tronic inform ation b e c a u se th ey are unlikely to e x te n d access b e y o n d th e c o m p a n y to com ­ petitors. Some universities, such as Cornell and Carnegie-Mellon, have also succeeded in making experimental arrangements w ith publishers. Elsevier is considering a n o th e r ap p ro ach . Its Tulip (T he U niversity Licensing P rogram ) p ro ­ p o sal w o u ld lo ad the p a g e im ages o f 42 jour­ nals in m aterial science o n to an In tern et server for n etw o rk distribution to a d o z e n participat­ ing universities. T h e universities w o u ld th e n b e licen sed to redistribute th e articles th ro u g h ­ o u t th eir cam p u ses using w h a te v e r local sys­ tem a n d procedures seem ed appropriate to their users. From th e p u b lish e rs’ p o in t o f v iew the m ajor issues are n o t technical, b u t legal an d econom ic. Such an u n b u n d lin g o f services in­ volves significant risk. A d ecisio n is e x p e c te d later this year. EBSCO's perspective R ounding o u t th e program , EBSCO vice-presi­ d e n t Tim Collins p ro v id ed th e p ersp ectiv e o f a p u b lish e r a n d subscription agent. EBSCO p ro ­ d u c e s A c a d e m ic Abstracts, providing abstracts fo r 10,000 general referen ce m agazines, as w ell as serving as a su b scrip tio n a g e n t fo r libraries. Collins thinks th e biggest ch a n g e in th e in­ d u stry h as b e e n th e p h e n o m e n a l g row th in in­ form ation w ith its im plications for publishers, libraries, an d researchers. Libraries are looking for w ays to control th e rising cost o f acquiring the incredible surge in p u b lish e d inform ation. Increasingly th ey are relying o n electronically p ro d u c e d abstracts from w h ich p atro n s select th o se articles th e y w ish to exam ine. T hose ar­ ticles are th e n p u rc h a s e d th ro u g h a d o c u m e n t delivery system , ob v iatin g th e n e e d to buy, catalog, bind, a n d shelve p a p e r c o p ies o f e n ­ tire journals. As m o re institutions c h o o se to cancel su b ­ scrip tio n s a n d su b stitu te d o c u m e n t delivery, p u b lish ers are co n sid erin g h o w to price their p ro d u cts a n d services. T heir a p p ro a c h , acco rd ­ ing to Collins, h as b e e n m o re intuitive th a n scientific. If th e p u b lish er o f inform ation in elec­ tronic form b eliev es th at inform ation will b e infrequently consulted, h e will p ro b ab ly charge a high initial p u rc h a se price in o rd e r to recover costs. If, h o w e v e r, h e b eliev es his p ro d u c t will b e c o n s u lte d v ery o ften , h e w ill p ro b a b ly b e in c lin e d to p ro v id e th e p r o d u c t as in e x p e n ­ sively as p o ss ib le , rely in g o n p e r-u se ch arg es to re c o v e r his in v estm en t. After setting charges based o n intuition, publishers then measure the effect o f that pricing policy and revise it as experi­ ence dictates. EBSCO has used this approach in marketing hundreds o f its CD products. EBSCO ’s se m in a r, a tt e n d e d b y a p p r o x i­ m ately 60 librarians, c o n c lu d e d w ith a b rief q u estio n a n d a n sw e r p eriod. ■ (Beaubien co n t.fro m p age 3 21) to un d erstan d these im m ensely difficult forces— are read y at all levels o f o u r pro fessio n to m ake w ise decisions b a se d o n fact rath er th a n illu­ sion. I w a n t to co n fer w ith p e o p le w h o will se e all sides o f an y p ro b lem , w h o have th e creativity a n d en erg y to th in k n e w thoughts, w h o can m otivate th o se a ro u n d them , yet w h o will acc e p t real constraints a n d b e w illing to ch an g e their o p in io n s w h e n necessary. T hose are m y p e rso n a l reaso n s fo r advocating recruit­ m ent. I h o p e y o u will sh are them . This h as b e e n a n im m ensely exciting year fo r m e, o n e I will n e v e r forget. As it w in d s d o w n , I w a n t to th a n k A lthea Jenkins, C athleen B o u rd o n , Mary Ellen Davis, Sheila D elacroix, a n d M argaret Myers an d all th eir very cap ab le staff for unfailing su p p o rt. T he association is in ex cellen t h an d s, a n d I a m h o n o re d to have w o rk e d w ith its staff a n d w ith so m any m em ­ b ers to accom plish o u r co m m o n goals. ■