ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Fast Facts

Ann ViIes

Changes in use of library services

Data reported by ARL Libraries from 1991-2001 show declines in reference transactions (- 21 %) and total circulation (- 9 %), and increases in interlibrary loans (+ 109 %) and total number of participants in group presentations (+ 43 %).

ARL Collections & Access Issues Task Force "Collections & Access for the 21st-Century Scholar: Changing Roles of Research Libraries," ARL Bimonthly Report 225 (December 2002). http://www.arl.org/newsltr/225/main.html. Mar. 2,2003

Faculty reading behaviors

A study of the results of a 1993 survey of faculty and staff at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville finds that “journal articles were the predominant document type” both read and authored by faculty. Each UTK faculty member read “an average of 384 documents of all types per year for their work,” 161 (42 %) of which were journal articles. Although “all the faculty had used bibliographic databases in the past year,” more than half reported finding their “last-read document by browsing, whereas only about 24% used database searching.”

Helen Belefant-Miller and Donald W. King, "A Profile of Faculty Reading and Information-Use Behaviors on the Cusp of the Electronic Age," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 54.2 (2003): 179-81

? Revamped search results in RLG Union Catalog

RLG’s RedLightGreen Project seeks to use data mining software to find and display “conceptual relationships and holdings data” in the RLG Union Catalog, which contains bibliographic records for “42 million unique titles.”

RLG's RedLightGreen Project: Mining the Catalog, http://www.rlg.org/redlightgreen/mining.html. Mar. 2,2003

Impact of Gates library program

The Public Access Computing Project (PACP) at the University of Washington has conducted an extensive assessment of the impacts of the U.S. Library Program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. At its conclusion in 2003, the program will have installed approximately 40,000 computers in about 10,000 libraries in 50 states.

Andrew C. Gordon, et al, Legacy of Gates Foundation's U.S. Library Program: Impacts of Public Access Computing Positive, Public Access Computing Project, University of Washington. http://www.pacp.net/LJ_Online.pdf. Mar. 4, 2003

Public library budgets for FY 2003

Public Libraries responding to the Library Journal Budget Survey 2002 projected an increase of 2.3 % in total budgets and a decrease of 2.1 % in materials budgets for fiscal year 2003.

Norman Oder, "A Precarious Holding Pattern," Library Journal 128.1 (2003): 55-57

Scholarly e-books available to the general public

Browsing the more than 750 books provided online by the University of California Press and the California Digital Library finds at least 377 titles that are “available to everyone.”

University of California Press eScholarship Editions, http://escholarship.cdlib.org/ucpress/. Mar. 3,2003

Publishers Weekly bestsellers

Random House had 64 hardcover books listed on Publishers Weekly bestseller charts for a combined total of 385 weeks during 2002, accounting for 25.2 % of the hardcover bestseller positions on the charts. Other publishers with a large share of the listings were Penguin Putnam (14.9 %), Simon & Schuster (13-0 %), Time Warner (12.7 %), and HarperCollins (11.6%).

Daisy Maryles, "The Weekly Charts- Shifting Sands," Publishers Weekly Jan. 13,2003:32-35

Ann Viles is coordinator of reference and instruction at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, e-mail: vilesea@conrad.appstate.edu

FOCUS ON SERIALS

F. Dixon Brooke, Jr. Vice President, Division General Manager EBSCO Subscription Services

Recent events have caused understandable anxiety regarding the reputations of serials vendors. From time to time when turmoil in our industry causes concern, we choose to speak out to share our position and comment on the subscription agency industry. This message does not address the possible outcome of EBSCO's planned purchase of RoweCom's operations. We will inform the library and publisher communities as soon as these pending transactions are concluded.

Because of the recent demise of one of the large international serials vendors, many in the library community are asking ques- tions like, "How could this happen? Is there stability among agents? Can I trust my library's valued funds to them? Is it safe to take advantage of prepayment options to maximize buying power?"

The current situation is serious, with far- reaching and damaging effects on many libraries. However, this has occurred with only one vendor. These problems have not plagued subscription vendors as a whole and certainly not EBSCO.

EBSCO is stable and reliable.This well describes EBSCO's position. We're here, doing what we planned to be doing at this point in our history. Next year we will cel- ebrate 60 years of successfully serving customers. EBSCO is a financially strong, stable company with a Dun & Bradstreet financial strength rating of 5A1, the high- est awarded. We are a privately held company, and family members are actively engaged in the day-to-day management of the business. The family takes a long-term view, making decisions with and for the benefit of our customers and employees. We listen to our customers to determine what

Our plans are simple.We will continue to serve our customers' needs as they devel- op and change. We do this through partnerships — with librarians, publishers and other vendors. EBSCO's long-term goal has always been to offer our cus- tomers the resources they need to make their libraries true "one-stop" sources for all their patrons' research needs. We are committed to integrating our Web-based services, not only with each other but with the other information sources required by our customers and their patrons.

Now, our reply to one of the library community's basic concerns:

Can we be trusted with your library's money and its mission?Absolutely. EBSCO takes seriously its role as a partner in your library's mission. We realize your funds are limited, and we will act respon- sibly on your behalf. Our dedication to timely payment for customer orders is evi- denced by the large and diverse group of publishers who have agreed to grace jour- nal issues during our negotiations for the RoweCom purchase. They know by expe- rience that EBSCO pays its bills. We will continue to offer prepayment options that can help librarians stretch finite funds through credits for early pay. And we will continue to encourage our customers to increase their purchasing power through this means without requiring costly and unnecessary measures of reassurance that negate the program's financial benefit.

So this is our position- business as usual. We believe our management philosophy, our network of offices and personnel, our tradition of excellence and our financial strength assure us and our cus- tomers of continued success.

CUSTOMER FOCUSED CONTENT DRIVEN

International Headquarters • 205/991-6600 • Fax 205/995-1636 • http://www.ebsco.com we need to do to grow our company based on our objective of maintaining profitabili- ty and providing the best service possible. The two are inextricably tied.