Abstract:

In spring 1997, a questionnaire was mailed to 95 major academic libraries in the United States to explore how serials librarians are responding to the boom of electronic journals (e-journals). Fifty librarians (52.6%) answered the survey with one follow-up. The study found that over 70% of the libraries that returned the survey had participated in e-journal-related activities. Questions relating to 'access' were consistently ranked high in explaining why librarians in major academic libraries think e-journals are valuable, yet 'cost' seems to be a critical factor in determining e-journal adoption. For most of the libraries surveyed, the figure for e-journals appears modest, although some institutions claimed to have more than 1,100 titles in their e-journal collections.

Language: English

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: Palmer School of Library & Information Science, Long Island University, NY, USA