NEWS RELEASE

Contact: Kathlin Smith 202-939-4754

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Electronic journals are fast replacing print in many academic and research libraries. And at most libraries, it seems inevitable that this format transition will run to completion. What effects will these developments have on library operations and nonsubscription expenditures?

This question is addressed in a new report from CLIR, titled The Nonsubscription Side of Periodicals: Changes in Library Operations and Costs between Print and Electronic Formats. The report was written by Roger Schonfeld, of Ithaka; Donald King, of the University of Pittsburgh; Anne Okerson, of Yale; and Eileen Gifford Fenton, of Ithaka.

The authors conducted a life-cycle analysis of the costs, excluding subscription fees, for print and electronic formats. The study was based on the actual costs of managing journal collections of various sizes at 11 institutions. The authors found that, over time, nonsubscription costs are lower, on a per-title basis, in electronic than in print format. The per-title effect is more pronounced at smaller libraries, mainly because they license relatively large collections of electronic titles in comparison to the size of their print collections. Relative to collection size, however, the cost advantages of the electronic format exist across the board. Several possibilities for the short and long term effects of the transition are modeled.

The authors highlight an important caveat to these findings. The potentially sizeable cost of long-term archiving of electronic journals was not factored into the life-cycle analysis because it remains unclear where this responsibility will fall. Indeed, "The failure to resolve the issue of responsibility for archiving has hindered the transition to electronic journals," they write. If libraries were to accept responsibility for archiving, funds would be needed to pay for it, and the costs might well exceed the means of most libraries. The authors point out that the cost savings found in this study could be a source of library funding for this purpose and may, therefore, present an opportunity for the library community to shape the archiving solutions that eventually emerge.

The Nonsubscription Side of Periodicals is available on CLIR's Web site at http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub127abst.html. It will soon be available for ordering through CLIR's Web site, for $20 per copy plus shipping and handling.

The Council on Library and Information Resources is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the management of information for research, teaching, and learning. CLIR works to expand access to information, however recorded and preserved, as a public good.

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