Best Practices for Increasing E-Journal UsageKate SiltonElectronic Resources LibrarianNorth Carolina A&T State Universityktsilton@ncat.edu

ULAC Efficiencies Working Group: http://www.northcarolina.edu/?q=university-library-advisory-council/efficiencies-working-group

Best Practices for Increasing E-Journal Usage:http://www.northcarolina.edu/sites/default/files/uncincreasinge-journalusage_ulac.pdf

Background

• Practices were compiled by practitioners, not based on research.

• Vendor data isn’t perfect.• Full text downloads =/ REAL usage• Correlation =/ causation

Some caveats….

Lamothe, A. (2012), “Factors influencing usage of an electronic journal collection at a medium-size university: An eleven year study”, Partnership: the Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research, Vol.7 No.1.

Levine-Clarke, J., McDonald, J., and Price, J. (2013, November). Discovery or displacement? A large scale longitudinal study of the effect of discovery systems on online journal usage. Plenary session at the 2013 Charleston Conference, Charleston, SC. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhB3LM2WxuQ&feature=youtu.be

Tripathi, M. and Jeevan, V. (2013), “A selective review of research on e-resource usage in academic libraries,” Library Review, Vol. 62 No. 3.

What does the research say?

The Basics

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/steeljam/8640136055/

Library Access Points

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/libraryman/5601806/

Outside the library...

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/silversprite/3791525369

Extra Credit

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/retroskeptic/8459627536/

Discussion• Has your institution made an effort to increase

usage? What have you done? Did it succeed?• Has implementing a discovery service

significantly impacted your institution’s e-journal usage?

• What other metrics can we use?• What about other solutions for e-journal content?