The report looks closely at how academic libraries manage and possibly alter their academic journal purchasing and collection practices in the near future. The study gives detailed data on how much libraries have been spending on academic journals, and what percentage of their subscription base is accounted for by print alone, print/electronic, or electronic alone subscriptions, with detailed statistical breakdowns for each type of subscription. The report also presents exhaustive information on the role of so called “Big Deals” in journals purchasing. Survey participants also rate their satisfaction with their ability to assess journal usage on campus and, in open ended questions, discuss what they have done and plan to do in their journals purchasing regime.
Just a few of this report’s many findings are that:
For private colleges and universities approximately 20.47 % of all spending on academic journals is for print alone subscriptions.
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Mean spending for academic journals by the libraries in the sample was $917,961 for the 2019-20 academic year.
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For BA-granting institutions so called “Big Deals” through which colleges subscribe to a broad range of journals from a particular publisher at a reduced price, accounted for 48% of total expenditures on journals.
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Only 14.29% of research university directors or deans sampled felt “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their capacity to assess journals usage by their library patron populations.
Data in the 58-page report is broken out by size and type of institution, by tuition level, for public and private institutions and by other useful variables.