Purchasing Articles on Demand: Implications for Libraries and Publishers

Allen Press Emerging Trends in Scholarly Publishing SeminarWashington, D.C.

April 19, 2012Michael Levine-ClarkUniversity of Denver

DefinitionsPatron-Driven Acquisition (PDA)

Faculty Requests/InputUse Data

Demand-Driven Acquisition (DDA)Meets immediate need

Why DDA is Ideal for Books

High cost per use (but cheap unit cost)

Low overall useAs percentage of collection (40% not

used)Per item (most only used 1-2 times)

High publishing output~1 million titles annually (UNESCO)

Books Cataloged 2000-2004 (126,953 Titles)

4+ uses; 18.8%

3 uses; 8.2%

2 uses; 12.8%

1 use; 20.6%

0 uses; 39.6%

Books Cataloged 2000-2004 (126,953 Titles)

4+ uses; $1,084,576

3 uses; $473,060

2 uses; $738,435

1 use; $1,188,418

0 uses; $2,284,53

2

Annual Book Production, 2009

DU Pur

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North

Am

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Sch

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BP)

All U

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Wor

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NESCO)

0200000400000600000800000

10000001200000

But What About Articles?

Journals – Current Landscape

Big deals

supplemented by

Single-title subscriptions

supplemented by

Article-level acquisitionOn the marginsILLPDF purchase

Journal vs. ArticleIn electronic environment, the

article is what mattersThe unit most people want(Relatively) affordable per item

Articles (Why DDA May Not Be Ideal) Low cost per use (but generally

expensive absolutely)

High overall use

Smaller publishing universe (but still impossible to get it all)~350,000 titles (EBSCO)

The Big DealCost effective

Incredible deals for University of Denver

Lots of bang for the buckAccess to many more titles than

possible with title-by-title selection

Probably not sustainable with current academic library budgets

The Journal Inflation Problem

FY 2007

FY 2008

FY 2009

FY 2010

FY 2011

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

80.0%

RecurringNon-RecurringServices

How Do You Replace the Big Deal?

Replacing the Big DealMedium or small deals

More title-by-title selection

Article-level purchase

Current OptionsExpensive PDF lease

$30+ per articlePrint/downloadGiven to end user

Nothing for libraryNothing for next user

Works well for marginal material – not enough demand to warrant a subscription

Current OptionsRead-only short-term loan

Cambridge University Press modelLow cost ($5.99) in line with normal

cost per use 24-hour accessNo download/printAnother use = another payment

Might work for core material – but limited utility

A Goal: Replace Big Deal – Similar Access Level for

Similar Spend

Replace Big DealBenefit libraries

Access to wider range of journals/articlesGreater budgetary flexibility

Benefit publishersMaintain most revenue in face of

stagnant/shrinking library budgetsMaintain viability of journalsIncrease access to journals (beyond core)

Benefit bothMove from journal to article

Possible ModelsExpensive PDF purchase

$30+ per articlePrint/downloadFull-text access on publisher site

Available to next userPotentially lower cost per use

Possible ModelsCheaper short-term loan

$1.99Print/downloadSingle user with expiration

Possible Models - Requirements

Need a sustainable price

Need a capAt some point the library owns the

article (or journal)

Do publishers need a guarantee, or do we assume that good content will be acquired?

Thank You