A statistical analysis on the subscriptiou records of foreign periodicals at the University of Tokyo : The life cycle of subscribed periodicals

Abstract

Subscription records of foreign periodicals at 90 faculty libraries and the central library of the Univ, of Tokyo, over a five-year period (1975-1979) are analyzed. The computerized file on 4420 titles have been maintained in the subscription control system for foreign periodicals. The analysis is a part of the study on the nationwide on-line ULP (Union List of Periodicals) database system. A model on the life cycle of subscribed periodicals within a union list is proposed. Statistics are computed according to the life cycle concepts, utilizing SPSS under TSS environment. Some points discussed are: unique title ratios, degree of concentration of subscriptions, fields covered by new titles, patterns in continued acquisitions, annual volume of transaction data for the database update, annual growth rate of the database. A classification scheme for the chronological patterns of journal acquisitions is derived. It is shown that as many as 1749 titles among 3668 acquired in 1979 had been subscribed by the same set of libraries for the last five years.