---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 1 Jul 1996 09:35:19 CST
From: Donna Lively <LIVELY@LIBRARY.UTA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Trouble with usage studies -Reply

Mr. Henderson seems to want us to dismiss low "browse stats" as
criteria for cancellation because there may be "many other" uses that
are unrecorded.  Indeed, but that is also true for those titles which
show high usage too.  The point is, in context, when one is
cutting serials because one has no choice, because one's budget is
also being cut, use studies can still reliably show one what is
used heavily and what is not, period.  If all the "uncounted" uses for
all the journals were counted, I would bet that one would have close
to the same ratio of usage between "high use" and "low use" titles
that exists now with our "imperfect" methods.  Guess which ones will
still be targeted for cancellation?

Publishers who fear that their journals will end up on
the low end, should get busy and get them online for easy doc
del access because that is how more and more libraries will be
purchasing them, and these publishers might as well have some control
over the process and also get the "delivery fee" that CARL or
some other commercial vendor makes over and above a copyright fee.

Researchers will also have to learn to operate in a new paradiagm
with the use of online indexing and abstracting services and current
contents services for their "browsing" or their careers will continue
to be "hurt" and frankly it is not necessary that they should be.

Donna Lively