From: Jean Eaglesfield <eaglesfi_at_twsuvm.uc.twsu.edu>
This is a summary for the list from my query [in COLLDV-L] no. 1597 about
percent of the budget devoted to electronic subscriptions. Thanks to those
who responded and to the peer libraries who sent lists to us.
In October, I sent a query to the list asking for information as to the
proportion of the budget devoted to electronic resources, particularly
abstracting and indexing databases and full text general periodical databases.
At Wichita State University, we have increased the number of subscriptions
over the past two years. We had two questions: a) could we afford to add more
subscriptions and b) what is the limit to which these subscriptions should
rise? One of the ways to address the issue was to find out what other
libraries were doing.
RESPONSE TO THE QUERY. Few responses were received. One respondent
noted the danger of rigid number comparisons and the difficulty of
comparing library budgets. The few who did report specifics, had
percentage of the materials budget allocated to electronic subscriptions
ranging between 5% to 8%. Ken Watson of Eastern Oregon University pointed
out that according to the
Bowker Annual (p. 455 of the 1997 Bowker Annual) libraries are now spending
an average of 14% of their materials budgets on electronic resources.
OTHER INFORMATION.
I also found an interesting discussion on this topic in Frederic
Lynden's article "Will Electronic Information Finally Result in Real Resource
Sharing?" (Journal of Library Administration, v. 24, no. 1/2, 1996, p. 47-72).
Lynden states (p.51) that it was estimated (I assume the time would be 1995)
that OCLC libraries were then spending between 8 and 14% of their materials
budgets on electronic information, including document delivery. I recommend
the Lynden article as an interesting observation on current trends.
In addition to posting the question to the list, I surveyed our official
"peer" libraries. The Kansas Board of Regents designates peer institutions
for each of the 6 state universities, changing the list every year or two--so
this was a good opportunity to update our peer list. We also added other
libraries whom we have used in the past in doing comparisons.
The responses of this group were similar to those mentioned above. The range
was between 8 and 20%. Peers reported a great rise in the number of
subscriptions in very recent years. We also asked the peers to send specific
subscription lists. I tried to categorize these into three types: A+I--such
as Medline and PsycInfo-- data (such as ICPSR) and full text--such as Project
Muse, Jstor, and packages of full text journals mainly for undergraduate use.
As a result, we now have a list of what peers have that we do not and we also
have some, though not very thorough, interesting price comparisons. It is
clear that cooperative purchasing has had an effect on both the increased
number and on prices of databases.
Jean Eaglesfield
Head of Collection Management
Wichita State University Libraries
Wichita KS 67260-0068
eaglesfi_at_twsuvm.uc.twsu.edu
Voice: (316) 978-5073
Shared Fax: (316) 978-3048
Lynn F. Sipe
Associate Dean, Faculty Affairs, Info. Services Division
University of Southern California, Doheny Library 100
Los Angeles, CA. 90089-0182
LSipe_at_calvin.usc.edu 213/740-2929 FAX 213/749-1221
Received on Fri Jan 16 1998 - 10:04:31 EST