Patterns of journal use by faculty at three diverse universities

Abstract

University libraries are rapidly moving toward electronic journal collections. Readership surveys at three universities with different levels of electronic journal implementation demonstrate how transition to electronic journal collections affects use patterns of faculty and staff. The University of Tennessee was in a transitional phase when the survey was done (2000), the University of Pittsburgh had acquired a large electronic journal collection, but with some duplication with print journals (2003), and Drexel University had migrated to nearly all electronic journals (2002). Although faculty use of personal print subscriptions remains significant, electronic personal subscriptions are used only infrequently by faculty even though this is an option available to them. On the other hand, electronic journal use is very high when available in library collections. Twenty-five year trends of reading by university scientists show substantial increases in average amount of reading with nearly all of this increase coming from library collections. The likely increase in reading from library collections is due in part to a decline in personal subscriptions and increased online bibliographic searching coupled with increased availability of the library collections and, recently, enlarged electronic journal collections. Scientists appear to be more advanced in their use of electronic journals than other faculty, but changes are taking place within all faculty disciplines.