Journal Retention Decisions Incorporating Use-Statistics as a Measure of Value

The Owen Science and Engineering Library incorporates use statistics for both print and electronic versions of journals into their journal retention decisions. Continuous in-house statistics have been taken over the last seven years for the print versions of the journals. The library has been able to gather electronic use statistics from 39% of the publishers, which account for over 99% of the titles to which they subscribe. This data is manipulated to establish number of uses for each year for each title, and cost-per-use for each title. Using this information as a starting point, decisions on journal retention are made each year.