Patterns of Use of Electronic Journals in Spanish University Libraries

Patterns of Use of Electronic Journals in SpanishUniversity Libraries

Blanca Rodríguez Bravo, María Luisa Alvite Díez, Leticia Barrionuevo Almuzara, andMaría Antonia Morán Suárez

Available online 28 March 2008

Rodríguez Bravo,Library and Infore-mail: blanca.rodAlvite Díez, PhDInformation [email protected] Almue-mail: bufll@unileMorán Suárez, PhLibrary and Infore-mail: mamors@u

The authors wishof the chief librCoruña, La Rioja,interested in learniof the crucial imevaluating librarythe viability of inv

0098-7913/$–see frodoi:10.1016/j.serrev.

This article studies the use of electronic journals in six academic libraries of thenorthwestern Spain during the first few years of subscription, 2002–2005. The con-clusions outlined refer to the patterns of use of universities and to the characteristic ofthe contents distributed: spread of journals utilized, core publications and relevance,and subjects of these latter. Serials Review 2008; 34:115–128.© 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Introduction

This paper is the outcome of a research project subsidizedby Castilla and León Region in 2006/2007 and aimed atanalyzing the use of electronic information in Spanishuniversity libraries at the point in time when the tran-sition from paper format to electronic format took place.This study falls within the framework of the corpus of

publications on studies of the use of electronic resourcesand of their users, nowadays quite extensive. This wasreviewed and consolidated by Carol Tenopir1 and by thearticles included among the proceedings of the seminarthat the Ingenta Institute2 held in 2002, specifically onthe topic of joint purchases by consortia and their value.

PhD, is Assistant Professor, Department ofmation Science, University of León, Spain;[email protected]., is Lecturer, Department of Library andce, University of León, Spain; e-mail: luisa.

zara is Librarian, University of León, Spain;on.es.D, is Assistant Professor, Department ofmation Science, University of León, Spain;nileon.es.

to record their thanks for the collaborationarians at the universities of Burgos, LaLeón, Oviedo, and Vigo, who were highlyng the results of this study, being consciousportance of the use of information incollections, and also of the need to studyestments and user satisfaction levels.

nt matter © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.2008.01.002

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Packages of journals have generally been subscribed tousing the model that has come to be known as a Big Deal.These packages are directed especially towards consortiaas an opportunity to increase spectacularly the accessibilityof academic information, thereby reversing the priortendency to continually cut back in library collections ofperiodicals. The acquisition of journals in this way hasbrought a real growth in available holdings. This modelhas been the subject of various studies which have provideda reference framework for the present paper.3–7

In the light of these studies,7,8 it can be asserted thatthere has been a large gain from the Big Deal approach, atleast in relative terms, because inflationary pressure in theprices of periodicals was leading libraries to constantcancellations of subscriptions. Besides the great increase inthe accessibility of academic journals, flexibility in the useof information has also been noted because of the strikingutilization of titles not held in paper form. In many caseselectronic access takes priority over the printed holdings,as it proved possible to see in the data gathered from theuniversities of Burgos and León.9 Moreover, this aspectappears to be confirmed by the University of Con-necticut,10 as well as by the universities of Ohio, wheretwo-thirds of the titles used were not previously availablein paper form, as pointed out by Thomas Sanville.6

In this context, the exploitation of statistics on electro-nic resources must be set, as also any evaluation of thevalue of such an investment and the satisfaction levels ofusers. Thomas Peters11 gave an overview of the usefulnessof the data obtained from work involving the gathering,exploitation, and analysis of detailed and exhaustivestatistics on the use of journals. This overview includedreasons of an academic nature, the purposes of planningand evaluating library services, motives of a financial kind

able 1. Data on the universities for the 2005/2006 academicear

niversityStudent

EnrollmentTeaching andResearch Staff

DegreeCoursesOffered

urgos 9,177 624 31a Coruña 24,012 1,330 49a Rioja 6,889 444 26eón 14,205 936 53viedo 31,615 2,122 69alladolid 31,780 2,427 99igo 26,143 1,602 56

Blanca Rodríguez Bravo et al. Serials Review

within the area of internal management of consortia andlibraries participating in them, and, finally, monetarymotivations when it comes to the renegotiation of licenses.

The authors previously undertook an examination of thetopic coverage of the contents and of technical and func-tional aspects of the principal electronic materials’ sup-pliers.12,9,13 As confirmed by Ken Eason, Sue Richardsonand Liangzhi Yu,14 use is shaped by the influences fromcontents (coverage and relevance) and from ease of use.

The conclusions outlined in this paper refer essentiallyto the behavior of use in a group of universities in north-western Spain, involving institutions of various sizes. Theyreflect the quality of the contents distributed by Science-Direct, Springer-Kluwer, and Wiley InterScience, includ-ing the spread of journals utilized, core publications, andthe relevance of these latter. Similarly, several conclusionsmay be reached on the necessity of involvement by lib-raries in the task of heightening awareness of the re-sources available so as to permit encouragement of theuse of electronic materials. As Sanville15 states, in theearly stages of setting up a digital library, users have not yetfully grasped the possibilities of gaining information thatelectronic packages offer them. This same author points outthat the adding of extra titles to packages, providing bib-liographic links and improving search options lead toincreased numbers of downloads of articles.

Objectives and Methodology

Evaluations are essential in order to progress in shaping asuitable infrastructure that will guarantee access to scien-tific and technical information and permit universitiesand their libraries to maintain their lead in the provisionof academic materials. Such an evaluation must be basedon the application of techniques and methods that allowreliable information to be gathered to aid decision-making with respect to contracts and the investing oflimited budgets.

This study, in particular, has made it possible to knowwhat is actually being used. It yielded data on the numberof articles downloaded, broken down by institution, pro-vider, and title, which will allow librarians to judge theinterest in any given subscription. Likewise, the discoveryof which titles are most often used permits data to beobtained which are essential when it comes to determin-ing the needs for information of the various differentuniversity communities, the requirements for user train-ing, or the extent to which it is appropriate to give certainproducts greater prominence or visibility.

The specific objectives pursued were the following:

• to draw conclusions about the quality and significanceof the three multidisciplinary packages of electronicjournals that are in widest use: ScienceDirect, Springer-Kluwer, and Wiley InterScience;

• to evaluate the differences in the use of electronic ma-terials among seven universities in northwestern Spain;

• to analyze the concentration and/or dispersion in theuse of the electronic materials for which contracts werein place, arising from a freer, more exploratory and lessrigid use of collections;

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• to check on the relevance of the publications most oftenused, within the framework of the parameters set by theInstitute for Information Science (ISI);

• to investigate differences in the use of publications fromone topic area to another; and

• to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of the modelof contracts for fixed packages, the so-called Big Deal.

The universities studied were those of Burgos, León,and Valladolid (Castilla and León region), La Coruñaand Vigo (Galicia region), and La Rioja and Oviedo. Theuniversities from the same region have a policy of jointacquisition as they belong to consortia. Burgos, León,and Valladolid are members of BUCLE (Consortium ofUniversity Libraries from Castilla and León) and LaCoruña and Vigo are members of BUGALICIA (Con-sortium of University Libraries from Galicia). From theUniversity of Valladolid, we only counted on data ofoverall usage.The sizes of these institutions are far from uniform. The

numbers of teaching and research staff are proportionalto student numbers in all the universities considered.16

The University of La Rioja is the smallest institution, notreaching 7,000 student enrollment for the academic years2004/2005 and 2005/2006. Next comes the University ofBurgos, with around 9,000 students, followed by Leónwith its approximately 14,000.The two Galician universities considered, La Coruña

and Vigo, are seen as medium-sized, with some 25,000students enrolled at the former and somewhat more forthe latter.The universities of Oviedo and Valladolid had more

than 30,000 students each, enrollments at both beingaround 31,000 for the academic year 2005/2006. How-ever, in 2004/2005, Valladolid did not quite reach the totalof 30,000, while Oviedo exceeded this figure (Table 1).The analysis concentrated on the multidisciplinary di-

gital packages most commonly subscribed to by Spanishuniversities: ScienceDirect of Elsevier, SpringerLink, andWiley InterScience.The study covered the period from the start of pur-

chases of electronic resources by the consortium, whichgoes back to 2002, up to 2005, the year by which the stageof transformation of traditional libraries into hybridlibraries ended. Since the periods over which contracts ranwere not identical for all the packages in all the

Ty

U

BLLLOVV

Figure 1. Year-on-year changes in total downloads from ScienceDirect.

Patterns of Use of Electronic Journals in Spanish University LibrariesVolume 34, Number 2, 2008

universities, not all of them fully cover the period indi-cated. For instance, some universities had data only from2003 onwards.

Information on downloads by title is restricted to2005. That year is considered the point at which asufficient degree of consolidation in the use of electronicpublications in the group of universities as a whole wasreached.

Phase 1. Data Collection

Figures for the use of journals in the various packageswere calculated on the basis of two sources of dataprovided by publishers. One source was the filesrecording overall use over time of all the publicationsavailable through the publishers’ portals. The other wasthe files with detailed information by title, from which itwas possible to calculate exactly what use could beassigned to the package offered by each publisher.In Spain, the only systematic proposal for collecting

statistics on usage hitherto had been the recent work byCristóbal Urbano et al.7 They produced a report on theuse of electronic journals commissioned by the Catalanlibraries consortium.The authors reviewed the main standards for collect-

ing and producing usage indicators with respect toelectronic information and services, COUNTER, E-METRICS, EQUINOX, ICOLC, ISO 2789, ISO20983, NISO Z39. Thereafter, they decided to producevalue indicators with a two-layer structure:

- Data on overall downloads of articles, broken down byinstitution and year.

Table 2. Total downloads per year from ScienceDirect

UniversityDownloads

2002Downloads

2003Downloads

2004Downloads

2005

Burgos 9,222 17,340 22,008La Coruña 30,815 39,443La Rioja 12,004 17,969León 46,018 46,210 62,658Oviedo 99,070 107,622Valladolid 30,444 54,945 74,643 101,954Vigo 51,110 77,552

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- Data on individual titles used in 2005, broken down bysupplier and institution.

Phase 2. Data Processing and Analysis

The requisite spreadsheets and graphs for studying thecorpus of data emerging in respect of each distributorindependently were produced. The thrust of the analysiswas directed towards the following two blocks ofinformation:

(a) Data on overall downloads of articles, broken downby institution and year• articles downloaded by each institution each year; and• the ratio between articles downloaded and teachingand research staff of each institution (academic year2005/2006).

(b) Data on individual titles used in 2005, broken downby supplier and institution• titles subscribed to, by supplier and institution;• titles used, by supplier and institution;• core titles, by supplier and institution; and• spread and concentration of use, by supplier andinstitution.

The threshold used in establishing core titles was tenor more downloads during the year 2005.The relationship between titles used and titles subs-cribe to yields the spread rate for a given distributor.The ratio between core titles and titles used gives theusage concentration rate.

(c) Overview of the titles most often consulted in thegroup of institutions in 2005• core titles in the group of universities studied;

igure 2. Ratio between articles downloaded and teachingnd research staff.

Figure 3. Titles from ScienceDirect by university in 2005.

igure 4. Spread from ScienceDirect.

Blanca Rodríguez Bravo et al. Serials Review

• relevance of publications on the basis of their im-pact factor as established by the Institute for Scien-tific Information (ISI) in 2005; and

• subjects on the basis of the classification set up byUlrich’s Periodicals Directory™ Online.

This phase was complex because data gathering by thevarious firms was not homogeneous or uniform over theyears being studied. Previous work by the researchteam17 had already encountered difficulties in identifyingthe titles covered by licenses, and this was observed onceagain by the current work.

In the summary prepared by Angela Conyers and PeteDalton about the report NESLI2 Analysis of UsageStatistics commissioned by Joint Information SystemsCommittee (JISC) for the United Kingdom, the samelimitations are confirmed.18 The study has identified afew issues between them that publishers Web site lists donot always provide accurate up-to-date informationabout titles included in particular deals.

Coincidence exists between the present study andNESLI2 in the threshold used in establishing core titlesthat was ten or more downloads. NESLI2 distributed thetitles over nil, low, medium, and high use categories: niland low range (under 10 requests), medium range (10–99requests), and high range (100 and more requests).

Results

All the suppliers analyzed are multidisciplinary, yet theirsizes are different. It is noteworthy that the greater use ofthe titles of ScienceDirect related to the highest offer ofthe Elsevier package for the period analyzed.

ScienceDirect

This supplier provides access to over 2,000 electronicjournals. Its offer is wide, including contents from all the

Table 3. Data on ScienceDirect for 2005

Burgos La Coruña

Downloads of articles 22,008 39,443Titles subscribed to 2,144 2,139Titles used 966 1,252Core titles 312 589

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scientific areas. Nevertheless, the primary orientation ofthis provider is towards natural sciences and healthsciences.

Data on Overall Downloads, Broken Down byInstitution and Year

The figures for use of this supplier are large, in accordancewith the size of the package (Fig. 1; Table 2). This aspectcoincides with the trends observed in others universities,for instance the libraries forming the OhioLINK consor-tium.6,19 General growth in usemay be observed between2004 and 2005 at all the universities. In the case of theUniversity of Valladolid, this tendency is clearly visiblefrom 2002 onwards. The greatest rate of growth from2004 to 2005 is shown by the universities of Vigo(51.74%), La Rioja (49.62%), and Valladolid (36.54%).Global data of Oviedo are highest but the growth from2004 to 2005 is limited; therefore, the figures fromValladolid are similar to these from Oviedo.

Data on Titles Used in 2005, Broken Down by Supplierand Institution

Consideration of the data on relative use by the univ-ersities highlights the striking use made of this supplierby the academic staff of the University of León (Fig. 2).This figure is even more noteworthy since this institutiondid not previously have a subscription to any materialfrom Elsevier in paper format. In contrast, the staff of theUniversity of La Coruña made low use of this provider(Fig. 3; Table 3).All the universities subscribe to a similar number of

titles, the variation between them being only some fiftytitles. The total number of journals for which the univ-ersities as a group have contracts amounts to 2,256. Thetitles common to all the universities come to 2,106.

La Rioja León Oviedo Vigo

17,969 62,658 107,622 77,5522,211 2,202 2,202 2,148964 1,454 1,605 1,379280 751 1,053 715

Figure 5. Concentration from ScienceDirect.

Patterns of Use of Electronic Journals in Spanish University LibrariesVolume 34, Number 2, 2008

With reference to titles actually used, 438 were notmade use of by any university, representing 19.41%of the package. The use of materials by the Univ-ersity of León is striking, coming close to the figuresfor the University of Oviedo, a much larger institu-

Table 4. Titles with more than 1,000 downloads in total and coinc

Journal Burgos L

Tetrahedron Letters 725Tetrahedron 533Journal of Chromatography. A 376Analytica Chimica Acta 646Journal of Organometallic Chemistry 219Bioresource Technology 267International Journal of Food Microbiology 151Food Chemistry 528Water Research 255Journal of Membrane Science 705Chemosphere 77Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 284Research Policy 17Talanta 237Biochemical and Biophysical ResearchCommunications

22

FEMS Microbiology Letters 18Biological Conservation 16Science of the Total Environment 60Lancet 16Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters 28Environmental Pollution 45Colloids and Surfaces. A, Physicochemical andEngineering Aspects

270

Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry 58Soil Biology and Biochemistry 457Journal of Materials Processing Technology 98FEBS Letters 23Process Biochemistry 167Chemical Engineering Science 176Biosensors and Bioelectronics 78Coordination Chemistry Reviews 83TrAC. Trends in Analytical Chemistry(Regular Ed.)

83

Atmospheric Environment 58Gene 16

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tion. The figures for the universities in Galicia are like-wise high.The size of the core group of titles in Oviedo is note-

worthy, with the core being large in León and Vigo aswell. The case of Oviedo is related to the fact that thisinstitution has no subscriptions to other suppliers ofelectronic contents. The journals constituting the core inall cases cover more than 90% of the total accessesoccurring at each university (Figs. 4 and 5).The figures for dispersion are high, being above 50%

except in Burgos and La Rioja. The institution with thegreatest dispersion is the University of Oviedo whichactually used 72% of the titles to which it subscribes.A balance between the rates of dispersion and concen-

tration may be observed in all the institutions.

Overview of the Journals Most Often Used

In view of the considerable number of downloads of ar-ticles from ScienceDirect in all the universities studied,

iding in all the universities from ScienceDirect

a Coruña La Rioja León Oviedo Vigo

961 947 26 2,518 2,685935 903 17 2,047 1,770901 1,060 445 1,198 1,230623 790 373 1,584 1,037189 396 10 1,498 1,998500 41 456 474 1,47128 541 1,831 200 40071 480 711 232 1,005

959 90 450 815 384113 17 46 1,350 179671 88 267 373 903360 31 105 816 75410 29 110 1,844 104

368 165 205 641 382129 29 533 1,040 198

44 315 872 501 13392 48 915 430 342

409 44 260 339 61991 21 193 1,225 132

159 86 66 360 888342 65 252 164 61990 23 47 772 266

124 101 65 318 69323 15 221 88 536

129 34 343 401 310144 12 323 644 152274 53 169 206 356109 28 63 462 36432 112 48 870 3193 233 34 527 123

165 70 169 382 211

506 112 91 206 96142 11 286 402 164

Table 5. Journals most often used in the universities studied (more than 1,000 downloads in total) with Impact Factor fromScienceDirect

Title Downloads Ulrich Subject Area IF

Tetrahedron Letters 7,862 Chemistry 2.477Tetrahedron 6,205 Chemistry 2.610Journal of Chromatography. A 5,210 Chemistry 3.096Analytica Chimica Acta 5,053 Chemistry 2.760Journal of Organometallic Chemistry 4,310 Chemistry 2.025Bioresource Technology 3,209 Energy 1.863International Journal of Food Microbiology 3,151 Biology 2.499Food Chemistry 3,027 Chemistry 1.811Water Research 2,953 Water resources 3.019Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 2,931 Physics 0.985Meat Science 2,830 Food and food industries 1.766Inorganica Chimica Acta 2,661 Chemistry 1.606Journal of Membrane Science 2,410 Chemistry 2.654Chemosphere 2,379 Environmental studies 2.297Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 2,350 Chemistry 2.023Fluid Phase Equilibria 2,303 Chemistry 1.478Research Policy 2,114 Business and economics 1.835Tetrahedron: Asymmetry 2,069 Chemistry 2.429Trends in Ecology and Evolution 2,014 Biology 14.864Talanta 1,998 Chemistry 2.391Biochemical and Biophysical ResearchCommunications

1,951 Biology 3.000

FEMS Microbiology Letters 1,883 Biology 2.057Biological Conservation 1,843 Biology 2.581Science of the Total Environment 1,731 Environmental studies 2.224Aquaculture 1,708 Fish and fisheries 1.374Lancet 1,678 Medical sciences 23.878Theriogenology 1,650 Veterinary science 2.161Marine Pollution Bulletin 1,589 Environmental studies 1.831Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters 1,587 Chemistry 2.478Environmental Pollution 1,487 Environmental studies 2.451Colloids and Surfaces. A, Physicochemicaland Engineering Aspects

1,468 Chemistry 1.499

Polyhedron 1,434 Chemistry 1.957Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry 1,359 Chemistry 2.286Soil Biology and Biochemistry 1,340 Biology 2.414Journal of Materials Processing Technology 1,315 Engineering 0.592FEBS Letters 1,298 Biology 3.415Journal of Food Engineering 1,296 Food and food industries 1.249Forest Ecology and Management 1,258 Forests and forestry 1.577Journal of Chemical Thermodynamics, The 1,257 Chemistry 1.398Process Biochemistry 1,225 Biology 1.796Chemical Engineering Science 1,202 Chemistry 1.735Seminars in Orthodontics 1,177 Medical sciences –Biosensors and Bio-electronics 1,171 Biology 3.463Brain Research 1,154 Medical sciences 2.296Current Opinion in Plant Biology 1,131 Biology 10.807Surface and Coatings Technology 1,118 Chemistry 1.646Food Control 1,109 Food and food industries 1.107Wear 1,106 Engineering 1.404Coordination Chemistry Reviews 1,093 Chemistry 9.779TrAC. Trends in Analytical Chemistry(Regular Ed.)

1,080 Chemistry 4.088

Atmospheric Environment 1,069 Environmental studies 2.724Il Farmaco 1,068 Pharmacy and pharmacology –Journal of Power Sources 1,035 Electricity and electrical

engineering2.770

Gene 1,021 Biology 2.694

Blanca Rodríguez Bravo et al. Serials Review

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Table 6. Total downloads per year from Springer-Kluwer

UniversityDownloads

2002Downloads

2003Downloads

2004Downloads

2005

Burgos 838 505 840 1,330La Coruña 3,634 4,815León 2,023 989 2,494 2,962Valladolid 2,564 1,760 3,490 7,198Vigo 3,829 5,631

igure 7. Ratio between articles downloaded and teachingnd research staff from Springer-Kluwer.

Patterns of Use of Electronic Journals in Spanish University LibrariesVolume 34, Number 2, 2008

the core being conformed for more than 1,000 titles,Table 4 is limited to showing the journals with more than1,000 downloads overall and used more than ten timesby all the institutions. Table 5 shows the titles with morethan 1,000 downloads in total, together with the subjectarea as classified by Ulrich and the Impact Factor (IF)established by the ISI.It is possible to observe an overlap between the titles in

Tables 4 and 5. The titles present in the core in all theuniversities occupy the leading positions in the tableshowing which titles are most often downloaded. Therewould appear to be similar behavior on the part of theinstitutions with respect to the titles in greatest use. Ofthe fifty-four titles with more than 1,000 downloads,thirty-three were used more than ten times at all the uni-versities, implying a coincidence of 61%. The Universityof León has the most unusual behavior, with three titlesout of the top five getting only very limited use.According to the information supplied by the catalogs

of the universities of Burgos, La Coruña, León, and Vigo,all the titles listed in Table 4 are held exclusively inelectronic format in the first three, with only the Univ-ersity of Vigo having three of these journals in both elect-ronic and printed form. In those cases where an earliersubscription to the paper version existed, it has beencanceled.All of the journals included in Table 5 that have an

Impact Factor are to be found in the Science CitationIndex, with the exception of Research Policy, which isfrom the Social Science Citation Index.All of the titles with more than 1,000 downloads apart

from two have an IF. Of the fifty-four titles listed in Table5, twenty-four equal or exceed the median value estab-lished by the ISI, which is 2.391. The most striking IFs arethose of The Lancet (23.878) and of the journalTrends inEcology and Evolution (14.864). This second title holdsthe first place in the ISI for the field of ecology and

Figure 6. Year-on-year changes in total downloads from Springer-K

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environmental sciences. Note should also be taken of thehigh impact level of Current Opinion in Plant Biology(10.807) and Coordination Chemistry Reviews (9.779).However, these titles do not hold high positions in theranking of downloads.Three titles from this select core of publications were

also recorded among the Top Twenty Journals in thestudy undertaken by David Nicholas et al.20 on the use ofelectronic information in the OhioLINK grouping: TheLancet, Biochemical and Biophysical Research Commu-nications, and Tetrahedron Letters.Among Ulrich subject areas, there is a predominance

of chemistry, followed by biology and environmentalstudies. Moreover, the first five titles in Table 5 fall in thechemistry area, and all are in the core in the group of sixuniversities studied. It is true that the first two are in onlylimited use at the University of León, an institution withan unconventional pattern of behavior relative to theothers.

Springer-Kluwer

This provider gives access to near 2,000 electronic jour-nals since its merger with Kluwer in 2005. Its thematiccontents include publications from all the scientificfields. However, the main orientation of this supplier istowards health sciences, natural sciences and puresciences (Table 6).

Data on Overall Downloads, Broken Down byInstitution and Year

For the analysis of this provider, figures were not avail-able from the University of La Rioja. For its part, theUniversity of Oviedo has no contract with this distri-butor (Fig. 6).

luwer.

igure 9. Spread from Springer-Kluwer.Figure 8. Springer-Kluwer titles by university in 2005.

Blanca Rodríguez Bravo et al. Serials Review

In comparison with the data for ScienceDirect, theoverall figures for downloads from this supplier are small,even if they generally show an upward trend. In February2005, there was a merger between the two separateproviders Springer and Kluwer. This merger is reflected inthe figures recorded and in the increase in downloads atall the institutions in 2005, especially in Valladolid, wherethey doubled with a growth of 106.25%. The percentageof increase in Burgos, La Coruña, and Vigo is over 30%whereas León reaches only 18.77%.

It is curious that a drop may be observed in the figurefor downloads in 2003 in the Universities of Burgos,León, and Valladolid.

Data on Titles Used in 2005, Broken Down by Supplierand Institution

Relatively similar ratios may be observed for La Coruña,León, and Vigo, while those for the universities ofValladolid and Burgos are slightly lower (Figs. 7 and 8;Table 7).

The number of titles subscribed to by the universities inthe Castilla and León Region is double that of the twouniversities inGalicia that were investigated. This fact hasan impact on the size of the core title group and the spreadfigures in these two universities (Figs. 9 and 10).

In the universities of La Coruña and Vigo, spreadexceeded 50%. In contrast, in Burgos and León, down-loads from this package were of a core of only twenty-five titles.

No intensive use of Springer-Kluwer was observed inany of the universities. Vigo was the institution withthe largest core titles grouping, yet it did not comeclose to the 50% threshold. The opposite extreme wasthe University of Burgos, where use of this package isleast intense, involving a core group of just twenty-fivetitles.

Table 7. Data for Springer-Kluwer for 2005

Burgos La Coruña León Vigo

Downloads of articles 1,330 4,815 2,962 5,631Titles subscribed to 1,523 683 1,556 685Titles used 253 343 256 368Core titles 25 95 61 124

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Overview of the Journals Most Often Used

Table 8 gives the figures for titles with more than 100downloads overall that are used by all the universities or allbut one. Table 9 lists the titles with more than 100 down-loads in total together with the subject area as indicated byUlrich and the Impact Factor established by the ISI.The nine titles with the greatest overlap are among the

twenty most downloaded. This implies an index of ho-mogeneity of 45%, lower than what is noted for theother suppliers investigated. It should be noted that onlytwo titles are present in the core of all four universitiesand that, of these two, one gets only limited use in Bur-gos, the other sparse use in León.All of the titles listed in Table 8 are held exclusively in

electronic format by the four universities studied. In thosecases where there previously was a subscription in paperform, it has been canceled.All but one of the journals in most frequent use are

represented in the ISI ratings. The exception is Fresenius’Journal of Analytical Chemistry. Nevertheless, this publi-cation is among the journals of choice in Burgos, LaCoruña, and Vigo. Of the total of twenty-two journals, tenfall above the median score from the ISI, which is 1.276.In terms of subject area, there is a clear preference for

titles from the field of biology and related studies.

Wiley InterScience

This provider offers about 500 electronic journals of allscientific areas but humanities. It is particularly strong

igure 10. Concentration from Springer-Kluwer.

Table 8. Titles from Springer-Kluwer downloaded by morethan two universities

Title Burgos La Coruña León Vigo

Analytical and BioanalyticalChemistry

111 151 36 176

Applied Microbiology andBiotechnology

25 170 231 166

Biology and Fertility of Soils 105 29 125European Food Researchand Technology

90 51 118

Fresenius’ Journal ofAnalytical Chemistry

16 63 58

Hydrobiologia 192 128 253Journal of IndustrialMicrobiology andBiotechnology

49 60 61

Oecologia 110 39 111Water, Air, and SoilPollution

20 123 95

able 10. Total downloads from Wiley by year

niversityDownloads

2002Downloads

2003Downloads

2004Downloads

2005

urgos 1,773 3,863 3,595 4,437a Coruña 5,447 5,547a Rioja 2,614 2,613eón 3,666 3,794 4,150igo 6,084 9,150

Patterns of Use of Electronic Journals in Spanish University LibrariesVolume 34, Number 2, 2008

in the fields of natural sciences, applied sciences, andhealth sciences (Table 10).

Data on Overall Downloads, Broken Down byInstitution and Year

The University of Oviedo has no subscription to Wiley(Fig. 11). The data from Valladolid have not been takeninto account because it signed a contract only in April2005. Data for 2003 from Vigo are also excluded

Table 9. Journals from Springer-Kluwer most often used in the univ

Title

Lecture Notes in Computer ScienceApplied Microbiology and BiotechnologyHydrobiologiaAnalytical and Bioanalytical ChemistryEuropean Journal of Applied PhysiologyMarine BiologyOecologiaEuropean Food Research and TechnologyBiology and Fertility of SoilsWater, Air and Soil PollutionLandscape EcologyParasitology ResearchBulletin of Environmental Contamination and ToxicologyJournal of Industrial Microbiology and BiotechnologyJournal of Solution ChemistryArchives of Environmental Contamination and ToxicologyCurrent GeneticsMarine BiotechnologyJournal of Molecular EvolutionFresenius’ Journal of Analytical ChemistryBiotechnology LettersAccreditation and Quality Assurance: Journal for Quality,Comparability and Reliability in Chemical Measurement

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BLLLV

because they covered only the months of Novemberand December of that year.

The figures for overall downloads from Wiley in2005 are similar to those for Springer and much lowerthan those for ScienceDirect. The longer series of datafrom Burgos shows significant growth between 2002 and2003, a period in which downloads double. The dataappear to show a certain stability in downloads from thispackage in La Coruña and La Rioja, with only Vigopresenting a striking increase (50.39%). The universitiesin Galicia make considerable use of this package, as doesthe University of Burgos.

Data on Titles Used in 2005, Broken Down by Supplierand Institution

It is striking to what extent this package is used by theUniversity of Burgos, three times greater than its use ofSpringer. All the institutions having a contract with boththese suppliers seem to show a preference for titles fromWiley (Figs. 12 and 13; Table 11).

ersities studied (more than 100 downloads) with Impact Factor

Downloads Ulrich Subject Area IF

623 Computers 0.513592 Biology 2.358573 Biology 0.653474 Chemistry 2.098410 Biology 1.332388 Biology 1.772260 Biology 2.899259 Food and food industries 1.084259 Biology 1.276238 Environmental studies 1.058208 Environmental studies 2.092186 Medical sciences 1.060179 Environmental studies 0.528170 Biology 1.267162 Chemistry 1.228162 Environmental studies 1.612155 Biology 2.495152 Earth sciences 1.237144 Biology 2.751137 Chemistry –109 Biology 0.849105 Chemistry 0.861

Figure 11. Year-on-year changes in total downloads from Wiley.

Blanca Rodríguez Bravo et al. Serials Review

For this package, there is a complete overlap in thejournals contracted for by all the institutions, in the sensethat they all take the same set. It can also be noted thatthere is a certain proportionality between the level of useof this supplier and the size of the institutions. Thenumber of titles used is very similar in La Coruña, León,and Vigo (Figs. 14 and 15).

The spread rate is in no case greater than 50%, withthe lowest percentage being seen in the University of LaRioja.

Intensity of use is quite low in all the universities. Onestriking point is the relatively large number of titles form-ing the core group in theUniversity of Vigo, although theydo not reach 50% of the whole set. The smallest coregroupings are found in La Rioja and Burgos.

Overview of the Journals Most Often Used

The criteria employed in this analysis are the same asindicated for the previous supplier (Table 12).

The eight titles with the greatest overlap are to befound among the ten most often downloaded. This yieldsa homogeneity index of 80%. The University of León isthe institution with the least typical behavior.

Details on the formats held were not available from theUniversity of La Rioja. Only Vigo had three of these titlesin both printed and electronic versions. The remainder ofthe institutions hold the on-line version only (Table 13).

All but one of the titles have an impact factor, with 18out of the 39 titles exceeding the ISI median, which is2.086. The IFs for Hepatology, Angewandte Chemie In-ternational Edition, and Advanced Materials are strik-ingly high. Angewandte Chemie International Edition isthe journal with the largest number of downloads in thecase of this distributor and it falls within the core group-

Figure 12. Ratio between articles from Wiley downloadedand teaching and research staff.

124

ing in all the universities except León. This title is alsoamong the most frequently used works in the OhioLINKconsortium.20

In terms of subject areas, there is a predominance ofchemistry and biology. There is a greater variety of sub-jects than is the case for the previous two suppliers, with anoteworthy presence of technology journals. There areeven titles from the field of social sciences, such asthe Journal of the American Society for InformationScience and Technology and two titles from the area ofEducation.

Conclusions

Among the general conclusions, no stagnation can beobserved in the number of articles downloaded duringthe period studied. Nonetheless, the overall figures fordownloads are not particularly encouraging, with theexception of the package of electronic journals offered byElsevier. The use of ScienceDirect is much greater thanthat made of the other suppliers in relation to the size ofthe package this distributor makes available, yet it wasdiscovered that 18.9% of the titles subscribed to werenot used at any time by any of the institutions inves-tigated. The use made of Wiley InterScience, a smallerprovider, is greater than that of Springer in all the univ-ersities that have contracts for both packages.Intensity of use of digital journals can be described as

limited. A similar conclusion was reached in the analysiscarried out by Conyers and Dalton in United Kingdom,who claim that “a comparatively small percentage oftitles generated high usage (100 request or over) acrossall institutions.”18 The JISC study found that the number

igure 13. Wiley titles by university in 2005.

Table 11. Data for Wiley in 2005

BurgosLa

CoruñaLa

Rioja León Vigo

Downloads ofarticles

4,437 5,547 2,613 4,150 9,150

Titles subscribedto

671 671 671 671 671

Titles used 239 320 194 323 332Core titles 58 99 43 91 149

igure 15. Concentration from Wiley.

able 12. Titles from Wiley downloaded by more than twoniversities

Title BurgosLa

CoruñaLa

Rioja León Vigo

trategic ManagementJournal

128 59 221 231 73

ngewandte Chemie 582 467 495 1062

Patterns of Use of Electronic Journals in Spanish University LibrariesVolume 34, Number 2, 2008

of full-text article requests in the large universities isconsiderably higher than for the smaller institutions.Conversely, differences in the use of information inrelation to the size of the institutions of the northwest ofSpain seem not to be significant. The larger universitiesdo not always have greater numbers of downloads thaninstitutions of smaller size. Although there is no clearpattern of usage, there are observable preferences on thepart of different universities for given packages. Thispreference is what happens at the University of Burgos inrespect of Wiley InterScience and in León with regard toScienceDirect.All the universities investigated have welcomed the Big

Deal model. The University of Oviedo is unusual inhaving just one subscription, to the Elsevier package,breaking away from the established trend towards homo-geneous collections that avoid the traditional require-ment for selection by the library and its principal role inmanaging collections.Althoughmany of the titles under contract are not used

by the academic communities, it is worth emphasizingthat a considerable spread of use was noted. Users consultnumerous serials that their institutions had never held inprinted format. As Thomas Sanville15 and KentMulliner21 noted, in the majority of the institutions thatthey studiedmore than half the articles downloaded camefrom journals to which there had not previously been asubscription. This situation can be seen in the case of theUniversity of Leónwhere the academic communitymakesvery intense use of the package from Elsevier, a publisherwhose titles in paper format had not previously been held.Sanville, a firm supporter of the Big Deal model,

stresses the advantages of expanded access and points outthat there is an ongoing change of mentality in librariesfrom “I knowwhatmy users need” to “Let’s find out what

Figure 14. Spread from Wiley.

125

F

my users need.”6 This new viewpoint demands a greateravailability of documents and a higher level of accessibilityto permit greater use. This theory calledLongTail byChrisAnderson refers to aggregation of supply and aggregationof demand.22 As Lorcan Dempsey points out, aggregationof supply is about improving discovery and reducing tran-saction costs, “about making it much easier to allow areader to find it and get it, whatever ‘it’ is.”23

Spread is likely to grow somewhat as an outcome bothof user-training actions by libraries and of the persona-lization of the organization of electronic materials. Like-wise, use of all suppliers may be stimulated by the recentenhancements that allow access to electronic contentsfrom outside the institution. Data from the Universities ofLeón and Vigo in 2006 confirm this trend.As Angel Borrego et al. point out in their report based

on data from a user survey undertaken by the librariesforming the Catalan Libraries Consortium (the CBUC),there is no resistance to a change from paper to electronicformat but rather a lack of awareness and limited tech-nical skills among teaching and research staff, leading toreduced use of digital resources.8 This observation sup-ports the requirement to develop training initiatives em-phasized by Allen McKiel.24 This author stresses the

International Editioniotechnology andBioengineering

305 23 93 167

hemistry—A European Journal

400 291 264 337

uropean Journal ofInorganic Chemistry

223 112 126 158

uropean Journal ofOrganic Chemistry

238 200 98 357

ournal of AppliedPolymer Science

77 160 50 123

ournal of the Science ofFood and Agriculture

71 62 174 245

Tu

S

A

B

C

E

E

J

J

Table 13. Journals fromWiley most often used in the universities studied (more than 1,000 downloads in total) with Impact Factor

Title Total Downloads Ulrich Subject Area IF

Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2,606 Chemistry 9.161Chemistry—A European Journal 1,292 Chemistry 4.517European Journal of Organic Chemistry 893 Chemistry 2.426Strategic Management Journal 712 Business and economics 1.980Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology 625 Engineering 0.899European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry 619 Chemistry 2.336The Journal of Comparative Neurology 597 Medical sciences 3.400Biotechnology and Bio-engineering 588 Engineering 2.216Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 552 Agriculture 0.871Journal of Applied Polymer Science 410 Engineering 1.021American Journal of Physical Anthropology 360 Anthropology 2.693Advanced Materials 334 Engineering 8.079AIChE Journal 319 Engineering 1.761Electrophoresis 303 Chemistry 3.743PROTEOMICS 286 Biology 5.483Hydrological Processes 271 Earth sciences 1.457Helvetica Chimica Acta 231 Chemistry 1.833Advanced Synthesis and Catalysis 204 Chemistry 4.482Microwave and Optical Technology Letters 194 Physics 0.456Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry 192 Physics 2.750Yeast 182 Biology 1.941Hepatology 161 Medical sciences 10.416Electroanalysis 160 Chemistry 2.038Molecular Reproduction and Development 152 Biology 2.331X-Ray Spectrometry 140 Chemistry 1.391Journal of Chemometrics 139 Chemistry 2.385Science Education 138 Sciences: comprehensive

works1.312

Journal of Morphology 134 Biology 1.528Zeitschrift für anorganische und allgemeine Chemie 130 Chemistry 1.086Biotechnology and Bio-engineering 1959–1995 129 Biology 2.999Advanced Functional Materials 127 Chemistry 5.679American Journal of Human Biology 117 Biology 1.211Small 116 Engineering –International Journal of Osteo-archaeology 114 Anthropology 0.625Applied Organometallic Chemistry 1987–1995 110 Chemistry 1.385Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A 107 Biology 1.229Journal of the American Society for InformationScience and Technology

106 Library and informationsciences

2.086

Journal of Research in Science Teaching 102 Sciences: comprehensiveworks

1.202

QSAR and Combinatorial Science 101 Pharmacy and pharmacology 1.882

Blanca Rodríguez Bravo et al. Serials Review

responsibility librarians have to aid their users in under-standing the growing complexity of the informationmarket and the increasing diversity of resources availablefor research.

Moreover, concentration exceeded 60%only in the usemade of ScienceDirect by the University of Oviedo, aninstitution which, as has been pointed out, has a subs-cription to this distributor exclusively. The figures emer-ging correspond to the general tendency found in studiesof the use of electronic publications in the CBUC andOhioLINK consortia, where 80% of the use was con-centrated on approximately 35%of the journals. This is aconcentration rather lower than the 80/20 principle es-tablished for printed journals.7,25,6

126

With regard to the analysis of the titles most oftenused in the group of institutions as a whole in 2005,it is clear that the titles in most frequent use had anIF, some of those included in the packages fromScienceDirect and Wiley InterScience enjoying veryhigh levels. However, the most famous titles are notalways those most frequently used. This is why moreand more people are coming to favor the idea that itis necessary to evaluate journals with further methodsthat would complement the system established by theISI.Indices of homogeneity in the use of titles can be

observed, which might aid in setting up shared policiesfor the negotiation of licenses aimed at signing contracts

Patterns of Use of Electronic Journals in Spanish University LibrariesVolume 34, Number 2, 2008

for selected packages of crucial titles. Libraries shouldnot lose their leading role in managing collections andshould press for greater flexibility in the Big Dealcontract model, moving towards mixed options adaptedto the particular needs of users combining just in casewith just in time. This is all the more so because for mostlibraries a contract for electronic materials has broughtabout an absolute increase in expenditure and because allthe packages mingle high-quality titles with otherssecondary interest that get little or no use. This realityleads to the conclusion that over time libraries willundertake a selection process for the information theyneed, so that the Big Deal model will evolve. None-theless, such a selection must be made on the grounds ofthe real use made of resources and not on an a prioribasis shaped by financial considerations as was the casein the past.6

From the details of the titles most often downloaded,it may be deduced that researchers in the fields ofchemistry and biology are those who make mostintensive use of electronic publications. As has beennoted in a number of studies, academic staff in theexact and natural sciences are the greatest users ofelectronic journals.26,8 This situation has a twofoldorigin: on the one hand, the packages of journals takenhave a majority of publications from these scientificfields (contents of natural sciences are dominant in thethree providers analyzed), while on the other hand,researchers in the pure sciences have traditionally hadgreat confidence in journals.In connection with the great use of biology and che-

mistry journals, a relationship exists to the degree prog-rams available at the various institutions studied and theacademic staff involved. Universities of La Coruña,Oviedo, and Vigo offer both degrees: biology andchemistry. Burgos, La Rioja, and Valladolid have thedegree of chemistry; and the University of León has thedegree of biology.Conversely, such a large use of journals of health

sciences cannot be found, with an important presence inthe three providers, as the degree of Medicine in the uni-versities analyzed is limited to the Universities of Oviedoand Valladolid.As was pointed out by Evan A. Reader27 and by the

analysis carried out in the NESLI2 framework,18 com-parative measurements of the gains from the model ofcontracts based on closed packages are difficult to makefor several reasons: the starting point for the collectionsin each institution, the specific terms in the contractssigned and the varying strategies for developing digitalcollections.Unquestionably, there have been gains in terms of the

availability of information, and there have been reduc-tions in the storage costs that would be needed for col-lections in paper format and in the number of requestsfor interlibrary loans, as well as in the inconveniencesattendant upon travel required for the consultation ofprinted publications. It is also true, however, thatholding electronic materials eats up the greater part oflibrary budgets, perhaps to the detriment of otherinvestments.

127

Finally, the measurement of gains from contractsbased on the Big Deal model should not be interpretedin exclusively financial terms but rather as a function ofthe efficiency of teaching and research by the universitycommunity, expressed as the output of academic papersand improvements in teaching. As was highlighted byTenopir and King,28 75% of the use of electronicpublications has as its main purpose the development ofresearch activity, while 41% is linked to teaching. Thegreater availability of publications arising from sub-scriptions to these commercial packages has acted as adriving force in the development of use of electronicjournals and hence in scientific progress.

Notes

1. Carol Tenopir,Use and Users of Electronic Library Resources: AnOverview and Analysis of Recent Research Studies (Washington,DC: Council on Library and Information Resources, 2003) http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub120/pub120.pdf (accessed May15, 2007).

2. Ingenta Institute, The Consortium Site Licence: Is It a SustainableModel? edited proceedings of a meeting held on 24 September2002, London, organized by the Ingenta Institute. (Oxford:Ingenta Institute, 2002).

3. Kenneth Frazier, “The Librarians’ Dilemma: Contemplating theCosts of the Big Deal,”D-LibMagazine 7 (3) (2001), http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march01/frazier/03frazier.html (accessed June 18,2007).

4. Kenneth Frazier, “To the Editor: Letters in Response to theOpinion Piece, The Librarians’ Dilemma: Contemplating theCosts of the Big Deal,”D-LibMagazine 7 (4) (2001), http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april01/04letters.html (accessed June 16, 2007).

5. Mark Rowse, “The Consortium Site License: A SustainableModel?” Libri 53 (1) (2003): 1–10.

6. Thomas J. Sanville, “A Method Out of the Madness: OhioLink’sCollaborative Response to the Serial Crisis: Four Years LaterProgress Report,” Serials 14 (2) (2001): 163–177.

7. Cristóbal Urbano et al., “The Use of Consortially PurchasedElectronic Journals by the CBUC (2000–2003),” D-Lib Magazine10 (6) (2004), http://www.dlib.org/dlib/june04/anglada/06anglada.html (accessed June 10, 2007).

8. Ángel Borrego et al., “Use and Users of Electronic Journals atCatalan Universities: The Results of a Survey,” Journal ofAcademic Librarianship 33 (1) (2007): 67–75.

9. Blanca Rodríguez Bravo andMa Luisa Alvite Díez, “Survey of theProviders of Electronic Publications Holding Contracts WithSpanish University Libraries,” D-Lib Magazine 11 (4) (2005),http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april05/alvite/04alvite.html (accessedMay 10, 2007).

10. Brinley Franklin, “Managing the Electronic Collection With CostPer Use Data,” IFLA Journal 31 (3) (2005): 241–248.

11. Thomas A. Peters, “What’s the Use? The Value of e-ResourceUsage Statistics,” New Library World 103 (1172/1173) (2002):39–47.

12. Blanca Rodríguez Bravo and Ma Luisa Alvite Díez, “Análisis delos contenidos distribuidos por proveedores de publicacioneselectrónicas,” El Profesional de la Información 13 (6) (2004):441–449.

13. Ma Luisa Alvite Díez and Blanca Rodríguez Bravo, “Distribui-dores de contenidos electrónicos: acceso, interfaz y funcionali-dades,” in 9as. Jornadas Españolas de Documentación (Madrid:Fesabid, 2005), 29–46.

Blanca Rodríguez Bravo et al. Serials Review

14. Ken Eason, Sue Richardson and Liangzhi Yu, “Patterns of Use ofElectronic Journals,” Journal of Documentation 56 (5) (2000):477–504.

15. Thomas J. Sanville, “The Trends They Are A-changing,” inCharleston Conference Proceedings 2001, ed. K. Strauch (Ports-mouth: Libraries Unlimited, 2003), 11–20.

16. CRUE (Consejo de Coordinación Universitaria), “Estadísticauniversitaria: Curso 2004–2005. Guía universidades: Catálogooficial de las titulaciones 2005–2006, curso 05–06,” http://www.mec.es/educa/ccuniv/html/guiacrue/CD-guiacrue/index.htm,(accessed June 10, 2007).

17. Ma Luisa Alvite Díez and Blanca Rodríguez Bravo, “Análisis de ladistribución de contenidos electrónicos de Science Direct,” ElProfesional de la Información 13 (5) (2004): 353–361.

18. Angela Conyers, Pete Dalton, “NESLI2 analysis of usagestatistics. Summary Report. (March 2005).” Available: http://www.ebase.bcu.ac.uk/docs/jiscnesli2summaryeb.pdf (accessedJune 5, 2007).

19. Thomas J. Sanville, “A Method out of the Madness: OhioLink’sCollaborative Response to the Serial Crisis Three Years Later: AProgress Report,”The Serials Librarian 40 (1/2) (2001): 129–155.

20. David Nicholas et al., “What Deep Log Analysis Tells Us aboutthe Impact of Big Deals: Case Study OhioLINK,” Journal ofDocumentation 62 (4) (2006): 482–508.

21. Kent Mulliner, “Implications of Electronic Journal UsageStatistics: Conjecture in the OhioLINK Environment,” inCharleston Conference Proceedings 2002, ed. R. Azirjian and V.Speck (Portsmouth: Libraries Unlimited, 2003), 42–51.

22. Chris Anderson, “The Long Tail,” Wired Magazine 12 (10)(October 2004), http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html (accessed July 15, 2007).

23. Lorcan Dempsey, “Libraries and the Long Tail: Some ThoughtsAbout Libraries in a Network Age,”D-LibMagazine 12 (4)(April2006), http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april06/dempsey/04dempsey.html (accessed May 10, 2007).

24. Allen McKiel, “ebrary’s Global eBook Survey. Survey Analysis.(2007),” http://ebrary.editme.com (accessed July 10, 2007).

25. Lluis Anglada, Ángel Borrego and Paul Evans, “Big Deal Usage: ACase StudyWith Emerald Full Text,”Update 4 (4) (2005): 30–33.

26. Carol Tenopir et al., “Relying on Electronic Journals: ReadingPatterns of Astronomers,” Journal of the American Society forInformation Science and Technology 56 (8) (2005): 786–802.

27. Evan A. Reader, “Purchasing Resources Collectively: WhatMakes a Consortium Successful?” The Charleston Advisor 1 (2)(1999).

28. Carol Tenopir and DonaldW. King, Towards Electronic Journals:Realities for Scientists, Librarians and Publishers Washington:Special Libraries Association, 2000).

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Further Reading

Ma. Luisa Alvite Díez and Blanca Rodríguez Bravo, “Análisis de ladistribución de contenidos electrónicos de Wiley InterScience,” ElProfesional de la Información 13 (3) (2004): 209–220.

Lluis Anglada, Nuria Comellas, Joana Roig, Ramón Ros and MartaTort, “Licensing, Organizing and Accessing e-Journals in the CatalanUniversity Libraries,” Serials 16 (3) (2003): 299–306.

Judith Bar-Ilan, Bluma C. Peritz and Yecheskel Wolman, “A Survey ofthe Use of Electronic Journals Accessed Through the Web by theAcademic Staff of Israeli Universities,” Journal of Academic Librarian-ship 29 (November 2004): 346–361.

Steve Black, “An Assessment of Social Sciences Coverage by FourProminent Full-Text Online Aggregated Journals Packages,” LibraryCollections, Acquisitions and Technical Services 23 (4) (1999):411–419.

Ángel Borrego, ed. “Estudi d’usuaris de les revistes electròniques delCBUC. Consorci de Biblioteques Universitàries de Catalunya,” http://www.recercat.net/bitstream/2072/1439/1/ESTUDI%2BUSUARIS.pdf(accessed June 10, 2007).

Philip M. Davis and Jason S. Price, “eJournal Interface Can InfluenceUsage Statistics: Implications from Libraries, Publishers, and ProjectCOUNTER,” Journal of the American Society for Information Scienceand Technology 57 (9) (2006): 1243–1248.

Paul Evans and John Peters, “Analysis of the Dispersal of Use forJournals in Emerald Management Xtra (EMX),” Interlending &Document Supply 33 (3) (2005): 155–157.

Judy Luther, White Paper on Electronic Journal Usage Statistics.Second edition. (Washington, DC: Council on Library and InformationResources, 2001), http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub94/pub94.pdf(accessed June 10, 2007).

Blanca Rodríguez Bravo and Ma. Luisa Alvite Díez, “The Use ofElectronic Journals in Academic Libraries in Castile and Leon (Spain),”in Libraries Without Walls 6: Evaluating the Distributed Delivery ofLibrary Services (London: Facet Publishing, 2006), 125–137.

Blanca Rodríguez Bravo and Ma. Luisa Alvite Díez, “The Use ofElectronic Journals in Academic Libraries in the North-West of Spain,”LIDA: Libraries in the Digital Age 2006, (Croacia: Dubrovnik, 2006).

Diann Rusch-Feja and Uta Siebeky, “Evaluation of Usage andAcceptance of Electronic Journals,” D-Lib Magazine 5 (10)(1999),bhttp://www.dlib.org/dlib/october99/rusch-feja/10rusch%1Efeja%1Esummary.html (accessed July 18, 2007).

Erin T. Smith, “Changes in Faculty Reading Behaviors: The Impact ofElectronic Journals on the University of Georgia,” Journal of AcademicLibrarianship 29 (May 2003): 162–167.

Sonya White and Claire Creaser, Trends in Scholarly Journal Prices2000–2006 (Loughborough: LISU, 2007), http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/dis/lisu/downloads/op37.pdf (accessed May 20, 2007).