[Original posting of the survey appeared in COLLDV-L no. 1367; for reasons
of length it is not reproduced here as would normally be the case.]
From: "Perrin Wayne" <w.perrin_at_macmillan.co.uk>
Dear Colleagues
Last month I circulated a survey to the listserver on the future impact of
electronic delivery on the books business and in particular on the
humanities and social science monographs business.
The survey was sent to a number of related listservers, and to date 104
replies have been received. The results are summarised below with some
additional comments from respondents and from myself.
I am happy to share a complete listing of the survey results with anyone
(except, sorry, direct competitors!). Just email me with an email contact
or fax number and I will send it through.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody who took the time
to complete the questionnaire. If anyone has any further comments or
points they would like to make to me directly then please contact me
directly on w.perrin_at_macmillan.co.uk or telephone + 44 171 881 8067
Yours sincerely
Wayne Perrin
Electronic Publisher
Macmillan Publishers
Tel + 44 171 881 8067
Fax + 44 171 881 8004
Email w.perrin_at_macmillan.co.uk
SUMMARY OF RESULTS - SURVEY OF ATTITUDES TO ELECTRONIC BOOKS
YOUR LIBRARY NOW
Library Usage
Libraries continue to be heavily used with the majority of respondents
reporting increased student usage, although there was a wider variation in
the increase in faculty usage.
Demand for Desktop Delivery
There was a general agreement that demand was there with a greater number
reporting that faculty members were more likely to be asking for this
service at present. At this stage, however, I am not sure whether this is
driven by a particular type of academic (demographically or by subject
area) - an area for further research!
Student demand was relatively low although this may reflect the fact that
fewer universities possess the infrastructure to deliver to student's
desktops and fewer students have the hardware to do so.
Library Expenditures
The majority of libraries reported declining budgets . This backs up all
the statistical evidence and of course our own Macmillan publishing
evidence of declining sales
At the same time there was a general feeling that monographs did represent
good value for money in relation to journals.
Unfortunately, this hasn't helped us to stop the decline in sales - which
probably reflects the relative perceived importance of journals to
monographs and the preference to continue a run of a journal wherever
possible.
Monograph Purchasing
There was a general consensus that the importance was in the following
order
(a) librarian (49.2% agreeing)
(b) academic (47.1% agreeing)
(c) approval plan (25.7% agreeing)
What was clear, however, that the decision is viewed largely as a
co-operation between the librarian and the faculty member (where their
advice is forthcoming!). The approval plan may serve for many as a `safety
net'.
The Electronic Perspective Now
There was no clear trend on the way electronic expenditures were accounted
for, with similar numbers of respondents stating that they had or had not
established separate budgets.
The primary driving force for the move to electronic delivery was improved
access in particular for students but also faculty members. Cost savings
were not generally expected, with many respondents pointing to the pricing
strategies of the publishers as the primary reason!
SECTION B - YOUR LIBRARY IN FIVE YEARS TIME
Trends in Academic Courses
The trend towards proliferation of courses was predicted to continue with
the majority of respondents replying that they expected growth in
undergraduate numbers in particular.
Future Print Acquisitions Budgets
General budgets were predicted to decline in real terms. Budgets for
monographs were predicted to decline by a higher percentage of respondents,
suggesting that monographs budgets will continue to be squeezed even more
by rising serials costs and increased electronic expenditure.
Electronic Expenditure in the Future
Clearly many of the respondents are still in the process of establishing
their IT infrastructures and this expenditure was predicted to continue to
increase. Comments also pointed out the ongoing costs of IT maintenance,
reflecting the fact that IT investment is never a one-off cost but
continues to require investment in support and in changing technologies.
The majority of respondents felt that electronic expenditure would be the
greatest area of growth although, respondents were highly split on whether
their library would be spending more on books than electronic products.
This may reflect the relatively low starting point of electronic
expenditure and therefore the fact that electronic expenditure still has
substantial `catching up' before it reaches print expenditure levels.
Other Library Trends
Sharing of resources was predicted to be increasingly important, perhaps
reflecting the growth of the `access not ownership' culture and the
pressure to find new ways of making purchases in a period of continued
decline in budget size.
Similarly the growth of the consortium market is clearly a trend which the
publishers are going to have to address.
Electronic Access
The vast majority of respondents predicted that they would be delivering
material to desktops in five years time. In fact many pointed out that
they already were, so I should probably have included this question in the
first section for sake of comparison.
As far as the relative importance of electronic versus print was concerned
responses were very split, suggesting that the new information delivery
strategies will contain a variety of media with each medium delivering the
information most suited to it.
However, a larger proportion of respondents stated that electronic delivery
would be the most important medium for students than did for faculty
members, which may reflect a demographic change with younger students more
ready to accept electronic delivery than older faculty members.
The WWW was almost without exception viewed as being more important. In
retrospect, however, this may only reflect the growing importance of the
WWW as a commercial information delivery medium generally.
As for CD-Rom responses were again widely spread. There was some interest
in the impact of DVD technology as the `new CD-Rom' and also concern about
the hardware (i.e. towers) and software proliferation implications in a
context of growing pressure for standard access software.
The Role of the Librarian in the Future
There was again almost complete agreement that librarians would become
increasingly pro-active both in information delivery and teaching
information access (with again many pointing out that they already were
very pro-active - please accept my apologies if I suggested that I did not
think that already - I have been a librarian in the past so I should know
better)
There was some dissatisfaction with publishers who are migrating products
to the WWW/CD-Rom but failing to alert the end-users to this change but
instead relying on the librarians to educate the end-users
SUMMARY
There is clearly a great deal of uncertainty about *exactly* how the
introduction of electronic access will effect both publishers and
librarians roles. Some trends are coming through but what is clear that
change will take some time as all parties adjust to the new medium and its
possibilities.
The WWW itself has seen a rapid change from what were often rather limited
applications of electronic technology by publishers and (to a lesser degree
I believe, libraries and universities) but the distributive nature of the
WWW is only going to hasten those changes.
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT - IMPORTANT
c Copyright 1997 Wayne Perrin. All rights reserved. This report may not
circulated or reproduced in any form whether print or electronic, except
for personal use, without prior permission of the author.
If you wish to make use of the contents of this report then please contact
the author w.perrin_at_macmillan.co.uk or 100617.772_at_compuserve.com directly.
Permission will not be unreasonably withheld.
Received on Sun May 04 1997 - 18:00:17 EDT