2011 Volume 57 Issue 4 Pages 141-160
This paper examines the present situations on demand and supply of e-journals in the fields of Science, Technology and Medicine at the small- and middle-sized national universities in Japan, and explored the impact on the usage behaviors of the researchers caused by the journal contract situations at those university libraries based on the Big Deal. Nine universities were selected as the samples of this research. The usage survey was conducted with a web-based questionnaire, while a mail survey was employed for the libraries' contract situations at each university. In addition, the librarians at two universities were interviewed. From July to September 2010, 250 responses (7.7%) were obtained from the researchers. By analyzing them, it was made clear that more than 80% of the researchers used e-journals more than once a week. On the other hand, the result identified that the libraries could not subscribe to some academic journals published by Societies in high demand in order to maintain the package in Big Deal contract. Although there was a discrepancy between the researchers' needs and the library collections, it also became clear that it would be difficult to bridge the gap due to the price system unique to the Big Deal. It can be pointed out that those factors had caused the researchers' usage behaviors such as privately subscribing to certain journals and personally asking the faculties affiliated to other universities to get a copy of the articles for them.
