[Original posting on this topic appeared in COLLDV-L no. 1289 and is
reproduced below; the summary of responses follows it.]
From: Suzanne Wise <WISEMS_at_conrad.appstate.edu>
We are considering extending do-it-yourself ordering of articles via
UnCover to graduate students. Our faculty have been ordering their own
articles at Library expense for several years without wrecking our budget.
However, we sense that unmonitored graduate student privileges might have
some major financial consequences.
Are other institituions allowing free student document ordering via UnCover or
other document delivery services? What is the financial impact? How do you
monitor and control expenditures?
Please reply ASAP to me personally. And thanks!
Suzanne Wise email wisems_at_appstate.edu
Belk Library voice (704)-262-2798
Appalachian State University fax (704)-262-3001
Boone, NC 28608
==================================================================
From: Suzanne Wise <WISEMS_at_conrad.appstate.edu>
I received 10 responses to my request for information from other libraries
who are offering "free" unmediated article document delivery to graduate
students. They are summarized below.
First, let me briefly profile Appalachian State University and tell you
what we have been doing with unmonitored, library subsidized article
delivery. Appalachian is a comprehensive university of about 11,500
students and 500 full time faculty members. We did a three month pilot
study with selected faculty members on do-it-yourself article orders
through UnCover and in the two and a half years since that time have
offered this service to our faculty. The cost has been between $7,000 and
$8,000 a year, as compared with a subscription cost of $90,000 to $100,000
if we had subscribed to all the titles delivered. We have blocked orders to
the serials received to the three libraries in our consortium (Appalachian,
UNC-Asheville, and Western Carolina University comprise the Western North
Carolina Library Network). We also offer unmonitered ordering of MathDoc to
the math faculty, which runs only about $300 a year.
We believe the cost is definitely justified by the service. As most studies
have shown, we have a few heavy users, a number of occasional users, and a
goodly number who don't use the service at all. The chief complaints are
that the humanities in particular are not well covered and that the
unavailability of abstracts makes the service less useful to many science
faculty.
We would like to expand the service to graduate students, but fear that
they are likely to be less judicious in selecting articles to order (we find
that they tend to just request everything on interlibrary loan, which the
library also subsidizes, then pick the relevant ones when they arrive; lots
of photocopies in the trashcan), and would wreck our budget.
These are the replies:
Three were interested in what Appalachian is currently doing or wanted to
know the outcome of my request.
One referred me to the earlier posting frm the University of Kansas,
(10-14-96). KU subsidizes ordering via UnCover for 11,000 faculty, graduate
students, and staff. They also offer subsidization of UnCover REVEAL
profiles ($20 each; cheaper if you pay for larger numbers). They validate
authority to order by loading KU ID's from their borrower file. Articles may
not exceed $30 each. In the first 11 months 2474 articles were ordered
(2262 supplied) for 286 users (84 faculty or staff and 198 graduate
students) from 864 journals. The average number per user was 7.9, the median
3.0 the maximum 303. The total cost was $30,111.06, an average of $13.31
per article, $105.28 per user. The maximum for one user was $4,180.10, for
one journal $1,580.50 (subscripton cost of the title was $422). The top 8
percent of users account for half the orders, a group of mostly graduate
students who ordered 20 or more articles each. See the original posting for
pros and cons.
LSU faculty and graduate students have been ordering at library expense for
four years. A couple of instances of mild abuse, but nothing critical.
Humboldt State University did an unmediated ordering pilot study in spring
1996 and now offers UnCover this way to 600 faculty and 600 grad students.
They use no particular controls except that their own holdings are blocked
to prevent ordering of articles already owned. They do not offer fax
receipt in the library, so either the articles must be received in the
departments or for 50 cents per page at the bookstore: "certainly a cost
control!"
SUNY-Albany is offering unmediated ordering from UnCover to their
biological sciences department beginning January 1997. The faculty have the
option of sharing the account with their grad students is they wish. They
are given a list of journals to which the library subscribes and asked not
to order those or any articles costing more than $50.
Wisconsin-Oshkosh has been offering library subsidized, unmediated article
delivery to faculty and grad students for three semesters. They use UMI,
ISI's The Genuine Article, and STN, the latter only twice and with poor
results. Cost has not been a problem, and the service has not been heavily
used. Faculty tend to order five articles a month, grad students less than
that.There was a problem one semester at when a faculty
member assigned his graduate class to each order five articles so that they
could "gain some experience using new technology." Some articles were not
delivered due to wrong fax number, no identifying name, etc. Direct costs
have not been great, but administrative issues have been a nuisance. The
campus is primarily undergraduate, a comprehensive university with 11,000
students. The three major graduate level programs are business, education,
and nursing. There are six smaller programs available and some distance
education students. There are no doctoral programs.
Colgate University began allowing students to direct order from UnCover in
fall 1996 for their senior seminar in neuroscience. Traditionally these
students have been heavy ILL users; the estimate is $1000 or more for 11-15
students each term. Preliminary results indicate that UnCover has been more
economical; through November about $1400 had been spent on UnCover
articles, cheaper both in up front costs of journal subscriptions and in
labor. Savings would be even greater if students were blocked from ordering
a specific journal with a very expensive article cost. Students in the
seminar were careful not to duplicate the articles they ordered; they
maintained a bibliography of articles ordered on a web site and shared
them.
Suzanne Wise email wisems_at_appstate.edu
Belk Library voice (704)-262-2798
Appalachian State University fax (704)-262-3001
Boone, NC 28608
Received on Tue Jan 21 1997 - 09:41:23 EST