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Diane Carroll |
WSU Libraries is selecting the journals most important to WSU faculty and saving $1.6 million a year thanks to a database created by Diane Carroll, head of collections.
“It is an amazing tool that provides us with information for collection management and details about our faculty and productivity,” said Beth Lindsay, assistant dean of libraries.
The serials decision database keeps track of the articles contributed to scholarly journals by WSU authors, the articles referenced by WSU faculty, and the university’s access to these articles via WSU Libraries. Some of the findings recently released reflecting use from all WSU campuses from 2006-2008 include:
WSU faculty contributed 4,832 articles in 1,689 journals.
The five top journals were Phytopathology, 99 articles; Sleep, 69; Plant Disease, 65; Journal of Animal Science, 59; and HortScience, 55.
WSU Libraries has print or online access to 1,415 (84 percent) of the journals and 4,417 (91 percent) of the articles.
WSU authors referenced 119,718 articles in 3,512 journals (more than five references required to be included).
The five top journals were Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2,078; Journal of Chemical Physics, 1,954; Science, 1,883; Nature, 1,715; and Journal of Biological Chemistry, 1,510.
WSU Libraries has print or online access to 2,541 (72 percent) of the journals and 107,318 (90 percent) of the articles.
Of the 119,718 articles referenced by WSU authors, 315 are in e-journal aggregators that provide access but no ownership; 1,371 are in open-access journals; 10,461 are in titles accessed via consortial agreements with other institutions; 12,400 are in titles not held by WSU Libraries; and 95,171 are in subscriptions paid by WSU Libraries.
It would cost more than $1.6 million annually to replace the titles that are part of consortial agreements.
In 2008:
Only 3 percent of journal articles requested via interlibrary loans – because WSU Libraries didn’t have immediate access to them – were requested more than five times. This is an indication, Carroll said, that WSU Libraries is partnering with faculty to make immediately available the journals deemed most important and necessary to WSU.
Users accessed articles from more than 55,000 e-journals registered on WSU IP addresses, with more than 1,650,000 downloads.
Considering a full-time equivalent (FTE) WSU population of 29,000 faculty, staff and students, downloads averaged about 57 each.
The five top journals downloaded were Science, 21,805; USA Today, 15,563; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 14,812; Journal of Biological Chemistry, 11,980; and Nature, 11,267.
For more information, please contact Diane Carroll at 335-7151 or carroldi@wsu.edu.
