Cost Studies of Borrowing & Subscriptions:Chinese Dissertations Theses

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to compare the cost of inter-library loan (ILL) service to borrow Chinese language monographs verses the per item usage cost through database subscription, using the Chinese dissertation and theses (d&t) database as an example. In recent years, many publicly-funded research and institutional electronic d&t have been mandated for open access by official OA policies. However, since most OA d&T are limited to STE titles at present, scholars in North America still have to use ILL services or use library subscribed d&t databases to access Chinese language d&t. The ILL Chinese monograph borrowing cost is based on the Lars Leon and Nancy Kress 2012 study and with further assistance provided by Lars Leon. The uncontrolled cost data used for the ILL study were October 2012 Chinese Japanese and Korean (CJK) language monographs borrowing costs of the University of Kansas (KU). The elements of cost studied include the cost charged by suppliers, staff handling, equipment/system maintenance, and postage. In addition, several d&t were borrowed through KU ILL from national libraries of China, Japan, and South Korea that were not available in North America for a controlled study. Although the ILL cost study in the presentation included Chinese, Japanese, and Korean languages, the cost study of d&t databases by subscription is for Chinese language only because of the commercial d&t database availability and practices of OA in Japan and Korea. Chinese d&t subscription cost per download was a study of subscriptions of two Chinese d&t databases, and their cost and usage by 11 North America East Asian libraries plus the University of California system in 2011 and 2012. The result shows ILL borrowing cost is similar to the cost at the higher end in the range of per item usage cost. Other commercial models such as the pay-per-use were suggested due to the similar cost of subscription and ILL, if subject areas are not as demanding and/or if the user population is smaller. The study finding can be used to assist East Asian libraries in North America to make data driven collection management decisions. On the other hand, the data may convince a few Chinese databases publishers and vendors to offer pay-per-use service. PPU service is more affordable for medium and small size libraries which have been using their ILL services to get materials that are not subscribed due to database subscription package costs. The presentation concluded that purchasing, borrowing, lending/leasing, and open access sources of library collections are shifting quickly due to the acquisition of more electronic resources, the open access policy, and the economic downturn and budget cuts.