Re: article on aggregated databases

[Linda Wobbe <lwobbe@stmarys-ca.edu>]

At Saint Mary's College we have seen a similar trend: increasing 
"searches" in article databases - decreasing "articles 
downloaded". The change happened as we began adding more fulltext 
Reference databases, which experienced a spike in downloading. 
So, one explanation was that students were using the Reference 
encyclopedias and handbooks appropriately for background 
information. Still, why more searches in the article databases? 
We also implemented OpenURL (as opposed to linking to holdings) 
at the same time, and our users seem very confused by the 
"results screen". (We have since implemented "one-click" which 
opens the fulltext article immediately if available; but we don't 
have final statistics to see if that stemmed the tide of 
decreasing "articles downloaded".) Finally, the bulk of our drop 
in "articles downloaded" was in one vendor's statistics. Perhaps 
the vendor changed how they counted downloads? Instituted longer 
embargoes? Lots of speculation here, and obviously room for more 
research.

Here are our stats 3 years running.

Periodical Databases:
Periodical database searches total for 2006-07 is 244,229, an increase
of 11% over the prior year.

Prior year total searches:
2005-06 ..220,103
2004-05 ..273,159

Periodical Database full text articles downloaded for 2006-07 was
78,945, a drop of 11%. Prior year totals:
2005-06 .. 88,533
2004-05 ..115,424


Linda Wobbe
Head, Collection Development & Periodicals
Science Subject Specialist
Saint Mary's College of California
Library
Moraga, CA 94575-4290
lwobbe@stmarys-ca.edu

____


Joseph J. Esposito wrote:

> This is a very interesting article.
>
> Is the decline in article downloads being experienced everywhere?
> Are there additional explanations for this phenomenon?
>
> Joe Esposito
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Barbara Fister" <fister@gac.edu>
> To: <liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu>
> Sent: Monday, July 21, 2008 5:41 PM
> Subject: article on aggregated databases
>
>
> > Apologies for cross-posting
> >
> > Some of you may be interested in an article about aggregated
> > databases and undergraduates that we've just published in the
> > July issue of portal: Libraries and the Academy, available to
> > many of you through Project Muse. For those who don't have
> > access, there's a self-archived copy here -
> > http://homepages.gac.edu/~fister/aggregateddatabases.pdf
> >
> > The short version -
> >
> > --librarians are very satisfied with these database
> >
> > --vendors are listening to librarians and are including more
> > content.
> >
> > --from 2005-2006 at 14 undergrad libraries, use declined 10%
> > overall.
> >
> > --in all of those libraries combined, 40% of the full text
> > journals included in the database did not have a single article
> > downloaded - not one - at any of the libraries; 4% of titles
> > accounted for half of the downloads. Of the top ten most
> > downloaded publications, only two were scholarly.
> >
> > --we still have a lot of questions.
> >
> > Just thought you all might be interested.
> >
> > Barbara (and Amy Fry and Julie Gilbert, co-authors)