Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 11:30:55 -0800
From: Stephanie Dykstra <sdykstra@INTERCHANGE.UBC.CA>
Subject: Cost of Access

Has anyone done a fairly recent study on the cost of borrowing.
What is a reasonable cost per use cutoff where it is not cost effective to
cancel?  It would be interesting to know what other libraries use as a
ballpark figure.  No-I have not done a literature survey.

The Biomedical Library at the University of British Columbia is involved
in yet another cancellation project.  Factors being looked at are price,
cost per use, number of internal document delivery requests, impact
factor, availability elsewhere, and faculty responses.

We too have found that the impact factor does not necessarily reflect the
level of usage here.   Cost per use studies should also be done several
times as not always consistent -results can fluctuate wildly.  If
consistently high over several surveys, then title is a good candidate for
cancellation. (Our unbound journals are not barcoded so the shelvers do
counts of selected titles on a monthly basis).

Thank you.

Stephanie Dykstra
Woodward Biomedical Library. UBC.