Life In The Age of Electronic Resources/Journals: Focus on Reality

The growth and increased availability of more and more electronic resources, allowing for access outside library walls, are among the many advantages resulting from recent technological changes. Thus far at GWUMC, we have been quite fortunate in our ability to utilize many of the advantages offered by these electronic resources. However, there are a number of issues and realities in the area of electronic resources about which we all need to be knowledgeable, to assure that in the future we can maximize their availability.

The field of electronic resources has been a very dynamic one in recent years, and the changes seem to be ongoing. For the publishers, this has meant that their perceptions about the use of electronic journals and the profitability of this continues to change. While electronic journals were once considered, in many cases, as “add-ons” to print subscriptions, they are increasingly becoming an area of focus in their own right. Library users increasingly want to access journal titles electronically not merely as an “add-on” to a current yearly print subscription, but they want also to be able to access multiple years of past issues. Many publishers and associations are finding it expedient to create fairly sophisticated databases of their electronic journals, allowing for sometimes intricate search methods to access articles. With the increased conceptual separation between print titles and electronic titles, their pricing and the possible different uses for each type of title by patrons, libraries have increasingly chosen to drop the print versions in favor of electronic titles. But this is a more complex decision than may meet the eye.

What is driving much of this? The simple and not very surprising answer is cost. And what is definitely not simple, nor probably surprising, is the resulting response to this situation that libraries are being forced to make. The costs of almost all electronic resources are growing. The electronic format is more frequently separated from its print counterpart. For a library, this means that the library is forced to pay almost double to be able to provide access to the resource in both formats. In addition, in the ongoing scramble to maximize profits, publishers are resorting to strategies that make the cost factor an even bigger issue for libraries. One strategy, called “bundling”, is utilized by many large publishers and associations. This requires access to an electronic journal title to be purchased as part of a “bundle” of many titles, some wanted by the library, others outside the scope of the library. Titles are either not available individually, or are so exorbitantly priced when removed from the “bundle” that their access becomes prohibitively expensive. Some publishers, require purchase of their highly priced database to be able to access a specific journal title. In order to obtain access to the electronic version of the title, the library must pay a higher price for a database they do not want, and which may duplicate, often less effectively, the abilities of other databases like /// just increasing prices and creating more hoops to jump through to obtain access. Publishers such as Elsevier own so many of the medical publishing houses now, that it is sometimes difficult to identify a title outside their aegis. It is important to note that these changes do not apply to individual subscriptions but only to institutional (or library) subscriptions.

Libraries are thus being forced to make very difficult decisions, because funding levels are not growing as fast as new pricing mechanisms are bei /// escalating and libraries have to make changes to meet these increases. Himmelfarb Library is not any different in this respect. In order to make more effective decisions about successfully operating in this fast-changing environment of electronic resources, Himmelfarb has established a new working group whose purpose is to assess this situation and how best to meet the challenge. In the upcoming months, we will focus on educating ourselves about what other similar academic libraries are doing, solicit opinions from those who will be affected by any future changes, and developing strategies to cope with the new set of realities. Please stay tuned and lend us your knowledge to assist us in making decisions that will best benefit all.