JISC Collections, the membership organisation that supports the provision of digital content for education and research in the UK, has published a report titled 'UK Scholarly Reading and the Value of Library Resources.' The report is based on research carried out by Prof. Carol Tenopir from the Center for Information and Communication Studies at the University of Tennessee.
The report examines how valuable scholarly reading has become for academics, especially in terms of access to journal articles. It surveyed academic and associate staff at six UK Higher Education institutions in 2011.
From the academics' perspective, the University Library remains the first choice for access to scholarly material as it provides a wide range of high quality articles in a timely and cost-effective manner. In this respect, the University Library can rightly stake its claim to having an integral role in the academic research process, not just a supporting one, it is felt. The report includes comments from academics about how they are engaging with library-provided resources and why it is so important that access is maintained. Typical outcomes from these scholarly readings include inspiring new thinking and improving research results.
The research also examined what academics would do if library resources were not available. The findings suggest that without the library, academics and their departments would not find articles of such quality, that they would find fewer related articles, and that it would be a significantly more costly and time-consuming process.
An examination of searching and browsing habits also shows the value of library-provided search tools in saving academic time in finding quality material more rapidly.
The report is also seen to be encouraging for JISC Collections which is responsible for negotiating journal and database deals for the community as a whole, including the NESLi2, SHEDL and WHEEL consortia. The findings provide further evidence of the value derived from journals included in 'bundled deals', both in terms of current journal articles and archival collections.
Although the survey focuses on academics, it is worth noting that the article readings are also used to support teaching, so staff and students alike are benefiting from access to these resources.
The research is part of a wider international Lib-Value project being coordinated by the Center for Information and Communication Studies at the University of Tennessee.
The report is available at: http://www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/Reports/ukscholarlyreadingreport
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