Pay-per-view in interlibrary loan: a case study.

Area of Science:

• Library and Information Science
• Scholarly Communication
• Copyright Law

Background:

• Libraries often rely on interlibrary loan (ILL) to provide access to articles.
• Copyright royalties can represent a substantial cost for ILL services.
• Evaluating cost-effectiveness of article acquisition methods is crucial for library budgeting.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if purchasing articles directly from publishers is a cost-effective alternative to interlibrary loan (ILL) for libraries with significant copyright royalty obligations.
• To analyze the financial implications of direct article purchasing versus traditional ILL.

Main Methods:

• A case study was conducted at the University of Nebraska Medical Center's McGoogan Library of Medicine.
• Data from the first quarter of 2009 identified interlibrary loan requests requiring copyright payment.
• Costs of direct article purchase from publishers were compared to the full ILL costs.
• A pilot program of purchasing articles directly from publishers was implemented and evaluated.

Main Results:

• Analysis of first-quarter data indicated potential savings of approximately $500.00 by purchasing articles directly from publishers.
• The pilot period and ongoing direct purchasing demonstrated significant cost reductions for the library.
• Direct purchasing emerged as a financially advantageous strategy.

Conclusions:

• Directly purchasing articles from publishers is a cost-effective strategy for libraries incurring high copyright royalty payments for interlibrary loans.
• This approach can lead to substantial financial savings, optimizing library resource allocation.
• Libraries facing high royalty costs should consider direct article acquisition.