A new approach to collection bias in academic libraries: The extent of corporate control in journal holdings

Abstract

Questions of collection bias in library journal collections usually turn on a left-right political contrast. This article presents another approach that distinguishes between corporate and non-corporate controlled publications. Using this method, the catalog holdings of all Canadian academic libraries were searched to determine the penetration of socio-political titles of mainstream "corporate publishers" and those of "small publishers." Canadian academic libraries privilege, by a wide margin, mainstream titles published by corporate entities, although some libraries have impressive "small publisher" collections. This article also analyzed the availability of mainstream and small publisher journals provided by ten popular electronic vendors. These vendors provide very low access to non-corporate "small publisher" titles while covering 100% of surveyed mainstream titles. The implications of such provision rates are examined from the perspective of the scholarly browsing process and the role of the university. © 1997 Ablex Publishing Corporation. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.