Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery and Information Supply

Index

Volume 6 Number 3 1996

Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery & Information Supply
Volume 6, Number 3; 1996
ISSN:1072-303X

                The Economics of Access versus Ownership:
  The Costs and Benefits of Access to Scholarly Articles via Interlibrary
                     Loan and Journal Subscriptions

Acknowledgements................................................xi-xii

Chapter I: Introduction
  by Bruce R Kingma.............................................1-4
Abstract: In the fall of 1994 the university libraries at State University
of New York at Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo and Stony Brook began a study on
the economics of accessing science and mathematics journals by interlibrary
loan versus subscriptions. The study was based on an economic model by
Professor Bruce R Kingma. Interlibrary loan patrons were surveyed during
the fall of 1994 and financial data was collected on the costs of
interlibrary loan and journal subscriptions at these four libraries.
Decision rules on the economic efficiency of access by interlibrary loan
versus a journal subscription are presented in chapter VI of this study.
The primary results of this study are:
  1. Patrons, on average, "spend" $2.55 worth of time waiting an average of
     12.95 days for an article to be delivered. However, given that patrons
     receive a photocopy of an article through the interlibrary loan which
     they would have had to pay for had the library purchased the journal
     subscription, the average opportunity cost for a patron per article in
     this study is $1.68.
  2. While the average willingness to pay for a priority delivery by patrons
     is $2.55, some patrons are willing to pay over $20 for a guarantee of
     one-hour delivery, or over $8 for one-day delivery.
  3. The opportunity cost of $1.68 per article , when added to the cost of
     delivery per article based on the 1992 ARL/RLG estimates, the full cost
     of delivery via Uncover, or the marginal cost of delivery via SUNY-
     Express (a SUNY library consortium) yields an economic cost of borrowing
     of $31.23, $15.60, or $5.60 per article depending on the method of
     delivery.
  4. The fixed cost of purchasing a journal subscription, other than the
     subscription price, depends on the number of bindings and number of
     issues per year but is, on average, $62.96 of a year's subscription.
     The marginal cost is, on average, $0.07 per use.
  5. Given the above cost estimates; a library director can use the
     following decision rule to determine if it is more economically
     efficient to provide access to the journal through interlibrary loan:
     (1) subtract $62.96 from the subscription price (or subtract the fixed
     costs of the subscription as calculated in Chapter VI), (2) divide the
     result by the total uses of all subscription years derived from a one-
     year study (this assumes an interest rate of zero and an accurate use-
     study; (3) compare the resulting cost-per-use with the cost per
     acquisition by interlibrary loan (use relevant numbers from Chapter V
     and make certain the title is available by some method of delivery).
     Chapter VII provides more detailed decision rules.

Chapter II: The Economic Model of Access versus Ownership
  by Bruce R Kingma.............................................5-18

Chapter III: Survey and Data Collection
  by Bruce R Kingma.............................................19-22

Chapter IV: Use of, Satisfaction with, and Performance of Interlibrary Loan
  by Bruce R Kingma.............................................23-26

Chapter V: Financial and Time Costs of Interlibrary Loan
  by Bruce R Kingma.............................................28-34

Chapter VI: Costs of Journal Subscriptions to Libraries and Patrons
  by Bruce R Kingma.............................................35-38

Chapter VII: Decision Rules for Access
  by Bruce R Kingma.............................................39-47

Chapter VIII: Methods of Delivery and Consortium Analysis
  by Bruce R Kingma.............................................49-56

Chapter IX: Extenuating Circumstances: The Framework of Factors Influencing
Cost Effectiveness Within the SUNY Express Network
  by Suzanne Irving.............................................57-64
Abstract: The Suny Express document and book delivery service was
implemented in October 1993, within the context of a cooperative resource
sharing among the SUNY (State University of New York) University Center
Libraries. This article discusses the fixed cost factors of the service,
insights gained about the actual costs, and the framework of additional
cost factors influencing overall cost effectiveness of the cooperative. The
article primarily presents the perspective of an individual institution
(the University at Albany), but it also discusses cost factors generally
applied to the four SUNY University Centers (Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo
and Stony Brook)

Appendix I: Cover Letter, Survey, and Survey Instructions for Interlibrary
Loan Staff
  by Bruce R Kingma.............................................65-73

Appendix II:Calculating Present Value of Use
  by Bruce R Kingma.............................................75-76

You can obtain copies of the above articles; or subscribe, from The
Haworth Press Inc., 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY 13904-1580, USA. 
Single or multiple copies of all articles are available from The
Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
(EST). You can also obtain sample copies of any Haworth Press titles
from the address above.

Transcribed by Angus Nicolson
5th August 1996


Submitted by: j.gold  (cijs27@ccsun.strath.ac.uk)
               Tue, 6 Aug 1996 16:34:01 +0100 (BST)