Saint Mary's College Library's interest in and pursuit of document retrieval services was born of a need to provide timely access to periodical articles that we could not afford to purchase on a subscription basis. We had done much to increase the demand for articles by providing increased bibliographic access to periodical articles by the addition of several new CD-Roms, but we had not been able to provide the full-text of the articles other than through our traditional methods of using Interlibrary Borrowing services which was not fast enough for most of our users. We asked ourselves the following questions:
We "tested" several document suppliers using our own data from Interlibrary Borrowing records, searching for titles that our staff found difficult to locate via traditional ILB sources. We continued our research by reading articles published in library journals and by following the issue on Internet discussion groups.
It was about this same time, in the Jan/Feb 1993 issue of "OCLC Reference News", that FirstSearch announced the debut of document ordering on their system. The UnCover Co. had been in the article delivery business since the Fall of 1992, but in July of 1993, Carl Systems, Inc. and Blackwell Ltd. announced they would merge. Since we already has access to these two systems, it became clear to us that document retrieval was an emerging, evolving technology that was offering a very viable solution to our access needs.
The Pilot
Based on findings from our research, we implemented a Pilot Document Retrieval Service in October of 1994 with $3,000, funds which were "borrowed" from our periodicals and electronic search budgets. We established deposit accounts with three vendors: UMI (University Microfilm International) and ISI (Institute for Scientific Information) which we accessed through FirstSearch, and with CarlUncover. We also used Dialog whenever full-text articles were available and graphics were not needed.
This new service was announced with a P-DOR Service Guide and Request Form. A listing of the 71 titles which we were offering free of charge was appended to our Periodicals Holdings Lists. For the pilot, we focused on offering only core titles in the sciences and publicity efforts were concentrated on the School of Science. We define core titles as those which are essential to support the research needs of SMC's faculty and students.
In promoting this new service, we were perhaps too cautious in our turn-around time predictions. Our original estimates of 5 to 7 business days were too high, and perhaps a deterrent to some in using the service. We soon learned that most of the articles were actually received within 24 hours of the date requested.
What we learned
In addition to partially achieving our number one goal of increasing access to articles we did not own, the pilot project also provided us with data to answer the following questions:
Next Steps
During the year of the pilot it has been our experience that document suppliers have continued to offer enhanced and new services. For example, OCLC has recently initiated a $2.50 per article full-text retrieval for some of their databases; more full-text databases have been added to Dialog/Knight-Ridder; and just recently, Knight-Ridder has acquired the Carl Corporation which, we are hopeful, will enhance the resources of both companies and help to keep retrieval costs low.
With the success of our pilot and with the same goal of increased access to core periodical titles, we are planning to expand and rename the service for 1995/96. The new service will be called Article Express: SMCL's Pilot Electronic Core Periodical Collection with a start date of November 1, 1995. The decision to offer this service as another pilot was necessary because on-going funding is uncertain. Funds for the second year pilot will again be borrowed from the electronic search budget. The number of journals offered will expand to 300+ core titles across all disciplines taught at Saint Mary's. To help subsidize the cost of the article delivery and staffing costs, there will be a standard fee of $3.00 per article. The titles will be interfiled in one alphabetical sequence in our Periodical Holdings Lists, rather than just appended as in our first pilot, and will be included in our electronic indexes which allow local holdings information.
As we begin a second pilot, a primary objective will be to document those titles which are heavily requested. Depending on the subscription costs, they may be our highest priority when considering which new titles to purchase. We will also want to carefully document the total cost of the new service, that is, not just the cost to purchase the articles, but also the cost to search the databases, cost to publicize the service and update holdings lists, as well as staffing costs.
Conclusion
Although there are an increasing number of user-friendly and convenient document retrieval services which allow patrons to place their own orders electronically and debit their personal accounts, for our purposes, we do not view these as viable alternatives to ownership because of the cost to the user. For titles which are essential to support the current curriculum, the library is committed to providing them either free, or substantially subsidizing the cost for our primary clientele. Other, non-core titles can be obtained through other channels, such as traditional Interlibrary Borrowing, ordering at cost, or going to another local library where the journal is available. We also concluded that our patrons would continue to view this as a viable alternative to ownership, only if the standard for turn-around time remains within 24-48 hours.