Analyzing the use pattern of emerald electronic journals package: the case of Addis Ababa University Haileyesus Abera

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a dramatic shift from print to electronic journals use among users in academic libraries. Libraries spend a significant part of their budgets to subscribe package of e-journals offered by publishers. However, package of e-journals which include all or set of a publisher‟s journal titles have been criticized for including journal titles that may not be at the top of the priority lists of libraries. Thus, their contents may adapted poorly to meet the true needs of academic libraries with respect to their local users‟ need in curricular and research activities. In developing countries like Ethiopia, university libraries role in assessing the value of e-journals package made available by publishers seem to be limited. It thus lacks sufficient evidence to see how effective and efficient are the e-journals collection in meeting the purpose for which they are intended. One way for libraries to demonstrate the implied value of their ejournals collection to users need is to conduct use studies. Hence, this study attempted to analyze the use pattern of Emerald e-journals package by Addis Ababa University users. A descriptive survey study design was employed, to analyze the COUNTER-based use data of e-journals supplied by the publisher. The full-text articles downloaded by users from each e-journal in the package between January 2012 and May 2013 were analyzed by means of bibliometric laws. Furthermore, impact factor of e-journals from JCR 2012 was compared with use of e-journals. The finding of the study revealed that there was a high degree of skew in use of e-journals in the collection; few core journals (8.33% of all journals) satisfied a significant portion (33.48%) of the total download requests. A large number of journal titles were rarely used while some were never used at all; an average of 32.26% of all journals satisfied 80% of the total download requests. The ranking of journals based on the number of full-text articles downloaded in 2012 and 2013 was quite consistent. There was a significant relationship between frequency of use of journals and their impact factor. To this end, it seems not the right approach for the university library to subscribe package of e-journals offered by publishers without having concern for what titles are included. The use and impact factor of e-journals can be used in collection development practices to the selection of e-journals for renewal decisions in subsequent year‟s negotiations.