The digital transformation of scholarly communication through electronic resources has significantly impacted academic libraries and their users. It has led to unsustainable inflation in the costs of journals and other periodicals. In response, libraries have had to shift spending away from print to growing expenditures on electronic resources. They have also developed new strategies and services to help users effectively navigate and utilize the growing array of digital information.

1. The Digital Transformation of
Scholarly Communication
Its Impact on Academic Libraries and
their Users

2. Libraries: Connecting People to
Information

3. Rate of Periodical Inflation
1989-99
1989-1999 % Change
Annual Cumulative Price Increase +3.1%
Cumulative CPI Increase +35.7%
Annual U.S. Periodical Price Index +11%
Increase (USPPI)
Cumulative USPPI for +183.9%

4. Acquisitions Budget Increase for
Oberlin Group 1999-2002
1999/00 2000/01 2001/02 2002/03
6.18% 6.7% 5.11% 2.66%

5. How We Spend our $$
Oberlin Group Data
Year 1999/00 2000/01 2001/02 2002/03
Books 36% 37.3% 34.3% 32.7%
Serials 49% 50% 50.1% 51%
Electronic 11.1% 11.8% 13.3% 15.55%
Resources

6. What Can We Stop Buying?
 Tri-college Study
 53% said print should be kept somewhere in Tri-Colleges; 39%
said e-only is fine
 DLF/CLIR Study
 Over 60% of respondents said keep everything
 Only 15% of respondents suggested we might not need to keep
print journals
 Varied by discipline:
 Physical Sciences, Law and Business 13%
 All other disciplines 7-8%
 Net effect of e-resources is additive, not substitutive

7. Other Collection Development
Issues
Have I got a deal for you!
Preserving these resources

8. Creating the Connection:
Cataloging and Metadata
Disappearing ink: the problems of
bibliographic control of e-resources
Aggregation/Dis-aggregation
Web sites
The “I know I used that journal last month,
why can’t I get to it today” problem

9. Helping Make the Connection
 Ensuring the resources are catalogued in the
OPAC
 Designing Web sites that help users locate these
resources
 Integrating resources into CMS
 Contracting with service providers like Serials
Solutions to maintain lists of e-journals
 SFX and other linking services, so that no matter
where a user starts their search, they can chain
through to needed resources

10. Why Can’t my Library Catalog
be more like Amazon?
In evaluating whether a book might be useful, the following
types of information are most helpful
 Table of Contents - 88%
 Reviews in Disciplinary Journals - 88%
 Preface/introduction - 72%
 Bibliography - 61%
 First chapter - 56%
 General book reviews - 56%

11. Why Can’t I Get …?
OCLC study found that a major barrier to
successful use of library resources is the
inability to access databases remotely due to
password and/or license restrictions
Printing management
Public computers: how many are enough?

12. Reference and Help Seeking
False confidence syndrome: Students are
very confident in their abilities to find
information; 3 of 4 say they are successful
in finding information needed for courses
and assignments
Only 20% ever use a reference librarian
80% prefer face to face contact when
seeking help

13. Interlibrary Loan
ILL
Lending increased 35% from last year (first
quarter data)
Borrowing increased 20% in same time period
Licenses restrict ability to ILL e-journals

14. What is our Competition?
 About 30% of faculty, graduate and undergraduate
students cite the library as a very important source
for information for keeping current
 Faculty most often responded that personal
subscriptions/libraries were very important
(55.9%)
 Students most often responded that the open
Internet was very important
 But varied by discipline

15.  Faculty report that 59% of information used in
research comes from the physical or virtual library
 Graduate students reported over 70%
 Undergrads reported that 66% of information
needed for coursework came from the library
 But they also reported using Internet sources about
the same percentage
 90% of students use library’s print resources

16. Where do Faculty and Students
do their Research?
 27% of Swarthmore faculty came into the library
at several times a week or more
 72% used online resources from home or office
several times a week or more
 Faculty reported that 74% of the time that they are
accessing info they are in their offices (contrasted
with 9.6% in library)
 90% of students access library web from home
and 80% prefer that form of access

17. Where do our Students Go to do
their Assignments?
 2001 study found 65% of Swarthmore students
started their research at the Catalog
 OCLC Study found 79% of college students first
choice web resource for most assignments are
search engines
 Only 40% said they used library web site for most
assignments
 Pew Study found 73% reported using Internet
more than library for information searching

18. What do Users Value?
Convenience
Speed
Ease of Access
Quality/accuracy
Currency
Coverage
Ability to search and to print

19. Is Information Overload a
Problem?
25% of students said it was
For small colleges, 90% of the downloads
were from journals previously not owned
by the library
Downloads of articles indicate significantly
higher use than print.
Recent survey of Oberlin Group found on
average 16,000 + JSTOR articles viewed

20. Academic Libraries Respond
 New collection development models
 New ways to manage the administrative data
Development of digital repositories
 Enhanced cataloging
 Linking services
 Dynamic library websites to provide alternative
ways to get to resources

21. Academic Libraries Respond
Library support for CMS
Systems to allow for remote access to these
resources
Printing and public computing management to
control costs and improve access
Online reference services
Library instruction
More support for ILL

22. Some Concluding Thoughts
What challenges remain?
 Integration of open Internet and library based
resources (RedLightGreen)
 Better design that reflects needs and practices
 Integration between print and online
 More backfiles
 Greater clarity about what’s available or not
 Ease of authentication for remote use of
proprietary sources