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This article applies the economic model of interlibrary loan and library journal subscriptions developed by Kingma in 1996 to data from the Library for Natural Sciences, Russian Academy of Sciences. The model shows whether a library journal subscription or providing access to journal articles by interlibrary loan is more cost‐effective. The cost of international interlibrary loan including document delivery and the journal subscription policies to foreign periodicals existing in a large academic library in Russia are examined. Results are similar to the results found in the Kingma study of the Library Centres for the State University of New York. The most cost‐effective way to provide access to scientific journal articles within Russia is to provide additional funding for international interlibrary loan rather than increasing the number of journal subscriptions.

Scholarly communication in the U.S. has been closely examined in the past two decades by librarians because of the acceleration in costs of serial, scholarly communication. Specific disciplines of research have increased at unprecedented rates, namely the areas of scientific, technical, and medical (STM) publishing.

This paper describes progress which has been made towards the development of a procedural model intended as a code of good practice to enable special librarians to effect economies in their journal holdings by systematically planned use of the BLL. A theoretical model suggested by B. C. Brookes was tested on various sets of usage data from seven special libraries but the results proved to be unrealistic in terms of immediate provision to the user. A new experimental approach has now been developed based on the total use versus total cost of a journal collection.

It is an irrefutable fact that all libraries, no matter what their size, will eventually run into storage problems. The solution may be, as with the British Library, to build more and more storage facilities at the cost of millions of pounds. However, for industrial libraries a request for more and more storage space is not a solution which is likely to be well received by higher management, especially as the cost of floor space in buildings escalates. Therefore, another answer must be found. This paper discusses a policy which has been adopted in the libraries of the Research Division of Beecham Pharmaceuticals. The policy involves the extensive use of microfiche holdings of journals in the libraries; to the surprise of many people this has not generated adverse reaction from the customers. The policy does not stop the library stock from growing but substantially reduces the rate of growth. It is not achieved, however, without an overall increase in cost which must be set against the alternative cost of additional storage space.

This paper is the result of a small cost study of resource sharing services in 23 North American libraries. Its aim is to discuss trends that have affected resource sharing costs since the last comprehensive study.

Selected libraries were approached for this phase of study. A pilot phase helped to clarify the cost and service definitions and revise the database which served as the data collection instrument.

Immediate access to electronic items at point of use has resulted in user demand for faster turnaround for physical materials. This in turn has led to increased costs for ILL technology and shipping. Costs have decreased but continue to show a noticeable disparity between ILL borrowing and lending. The data also clearly support the perception that patron initiated Circ-to-Circ module requests have a lower per transaction cost than traditional ILL.

Libraries have been relying on cost data that is now almost ten years old. While this study is small, the data provide an updated benchmark to assist libraries in making effective decisions regarding resource sharing. The study illustrates a range of costs which reinforce the need for libraries to investigate their own average costs to optimize decision making.

The purpose of this paper is to detail the approach used in a project that worked with journal publication, subscription and article processing charges (APC) data. The project aim was to test if the resources allocated by the Matariki Network of Universities, a group of seven medium-sized universities, would pay for APC at the current level of publishing activity.

Data were collated and analysed from three years (2015–2017) for each of the seven partners.

A range of assumptions were made in dealing with the data. It was difficult to identify a subscription package that was common to all the partners. Data were not always consistent and in some instances it was incomplete. An iterative and flexible approach was required in this project. Even though testing had been carried out during planning, changes had to be made as the project was carried out. The timetable had to be flexible as those working on the project dealt with their day-to-day operational priorities and to enable each of the partners to contribute as resources allowed.

As alternative models of scholarly journal publication are evolving, it is important that the implications of these be tested to inform planning. Details of this testing need to be shared so that others can confirm the results, consider the approach and apply lessons learned.

This paper focuses on the details of the investigation so that others interested in repeating this project, or carrying out a similar project, can consider this in their planning.

The information age, where ICT is an essential tool for harnessing and disseminating information, has brought with it a number of very attractive innovations for libraries, such as the provision of information in electronic form, and the gradual move away from the just‐in‐case model, to the just‐in‐time service model, adopted by many libraries in the developed world. Many libraries in developing countries are still pondering the implications of going down the just‐in‐time route. Discusses the advantages and disadvantages for academic and research libraries, considers the experience of libraries in developed countries that have adopted the just‐in‐time model (using electronic resources) for services and draws lessons that academic and research libraries in developing countries can learn from.

I log into Acorn, Vanderbilt's electron library catalog and index system and identify a half‐dozen items that I wish to review for a current research project. They comprise two articles from the Social Science Index (which are in journals in the Central Library), an article in a journal in the Education Library, a book in the Management Library, and a pair of articles in journals not held by Vanderbilt.

Bibliographic citation analysis of student research papers is one method of evaluating the use of a journal collection. Journal selection and cancellation may be done on the basis of use and cost‐effectiveness to maximize the usefulness of materials purchased with the library budget. An analysis of the bibliographic citations of research papers by undergraduate and graduate students in the psychology department of St Mary’s University was used as one basis for psychology journal selection and deselection in the academic library. Findings confirmed that the most cost‐effective and the most used materials were usually held by the library. Titles that met these criteria and were not held are good candidates for new subscriptions. Likewise, the least cost‐effective and least‐used titles are candidates for cancellation. Convergence of data from other sources should be used to confirm citation analysis findings due to the inherent limitations of the method.

There has been a proliferation in commercial electronic document delivery services. Over the past few years this consistent growth, combined with enhancements to existing services, has made it difficult for librarians to keep abreast of the latest developments and service availability. This paper presents an overview of document delivery services and suppliers, and provides discussion on the various types currently available. The paper is further divided into non‐collection‐based services, collection‐based services and specialised collection‐based services. Detailed information about particular services has been collated and presented in tabular form: this includes information regarding cost, delivery time, subject field and full contact details.