Are Researchers Ready For The Electronic-Only Journal Collection?

Abstract

This article discusses a web-based survey conducted by the University of Maryland Libraries in the spring of 2001. The survey was distributed among university faculty and graduate students to determine their views on and use of electronic journals. Staff at the Libraries hoped to discover information that would suggest how best to manage collections to serve the university community efficiently. The survey adds two new dimensions to previous studies of electronic journal usage. First, it examines the respondents' current use of print journals in library collections and second, distinguishes between respondents' format preferences for those journals that are most central to their research and teaching activities as well as less important titles.