Using data for 2,717 journals and more than 9,000 acquisition opportunities, this study shows how journal prices vary by level of aggregation (single-journal subscription or full-text database), resource provider type (scholarly society, university press, other nonprofit organization, commercial publisher, or library vendor), and broad subject…

The aim of this study was to investigate the views and opinions of health and life sciences scholars towards subscriptions to e-journals. An instrumental case study was employed as the research design. Nine scholars were individually interviewed. Health and life sciences scholars in this study were happy with the level of e-journal accessibility…

There is a dearth of research on the perceptions of faculty members in educational leadership regarding open access publications. This reality may exist because of a lack of funding for educational leadership research, financial obstacles, tenure demands, or reputation concerns. It may be that there are simply fewer established open access…

This article reports the results of an analysis of five Big Deal electronic journal packages to which Hofstra University's Axinn Library subscribes. COUNTER usage reports were used to judge the value of each Big Deal. Limitations of usage statistics are also discussed. In the end, the author concludes that four of the five Big Deals are good deals…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the current situation and the social and economic benefits from the consortia acquisitions of electronic resources by the China Academic Library and Information System (CALIS) South China Regional Centre and to recommend improvements for consortia acquisitions. Design/methodology/approach: Analyses…

This report presents statistics on how Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member libraries spend money on electronic resources. This report indicates that 108 ARL libraries purchased 25,006,758 electronic books. In 2006-2007, there was an ARL median of 243,725 acquisitions of electronic books (this includes one institution that purchased…

This paper reports on the evaluation of local usage statistics of a specific set of chemistry journals at the University of Denver in Colorado, USA. The objective of the study is to demonstrate that commercial publishers in chemistry charge considerably more for their journals than those from the non-commercial sector. There are three variables…

The authors recount experiences of the variety of problems and issues involved in providing access to electronic journals in a large academic library. The paper excludes concerns emanating from decisions to subscribe to aggregations such as those produced by vendors like EBSCO, but concentrates on scholarly journals ordered individually, or as…

ARL is the bimonthly report on research library issues and actions from ARL (Association of Research Libraries), CNI (Coalition of Networked Information), and SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition). ARL reports on current issues of interest to academic and research library administrators, staff, and users; higher education…

In the last year the anger and frustration simmering in libraries for a decade or more over the growing dysfunction of the scholarly communications system found a voice, a cause, and a cadre of allies around the globe. This time, the voices that said, "No" to the Big Deals were those of faculty members and academic officers at some very…

Reviews the general issues associated with electronic journals and illustrates them with references to the products and projects that are available in the United Kingdom. Discusses issues for librarians, including costs and licensing; and issues for the information industry, including publisher competencies, peer review, and pricing structures.…

The Carolina Consortium came into being for one purpose: to conclude deals that would allow the sharing of both the costs and the content of a large number of academic journals from three major publishers--Wiley, Springer, and Blackwell. In just a few months--and without any central authority, funding, or administrative overhead--librarians from…

Surveys and analysis of physics journal publishing reveal the interests/preferences of readers, authors, publishers, and libraries. Additional areas addressed include journal prices, page charges, separates (photocopies, reprints, and others), and articles on demand. Indicates that, although practical problems exist, the "electronic journal" may…

Discusses new pricing and payment options for libraries in light of online products. Topics include alternative cost models rather than traditional subscriptions; use-based pricing; changes in scholarly communication due to information technology; methods to determine appropriate charges for different organizations; consortial plans; funding; and…

Amid the growth of the World Wide Web, Web magazines have risen to popularity. Topics include their hypermedia features; online panel discussions; video and audio; space and time; and costs, advertising, and access fees. Highlights "Slate,""Salon,""Hotwired,""Feed," and "Word." Concludes that…