Price of electronic access soars

Anyone in the UB community familiar with the University Libraries can tell you that the Libraries' Web site and catalog provide access to thousands of electronic titles, including Web sites, e-books and electronic serial publications. The titles most heavily used by students, faculty and staff fall into two categories: electronic journals and electronic databases.

At present, the Libraries provide access to nearly 5,000 electronic journals. Some of these titles are available in the digital format only, but most are electronic reproductions of titles also held in print. They can be accessed directly through the online catalog http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources/bison/ by searching on the title and then clicking on the URL that appears in the record.

Many of these journals also can be accessed through one of the Libraries' approximately 90 full-text electronic databases. These databases not only serve as searchable subject-based indexes, but they also provide access to, in many instances, the full text of the publications cited. ScienceDirect, for instance, is an aggregate database that indexes and provides access to the full text of more than 850 Elsevier science-related journals, while JSTOR leads to full-text articles in nearly 150 of the most influential academic journals across the disciplines. Another database, very popular with undergraduates, is Infotrac Onefile, which provides coverage of articles from more than 6,000 scholarly, trade and general-interest periodicals, including 3,000 full-text titles. Subjects covered by Infotrac include the humanities, social sciences, general sciences and current events.

To see a list of all the databases available through the University Libraries, go to http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/cgi-test/title.cgi.

Electronic resources are not cheap. The exorbitant price of journals and indexes/abstracts always has been a concern for academic libraries, and the increasing subscription costs of electronic equivalents suggest that this trend will continue. For a little perspective on these costs, consider the database LEXIS-NEXIS Academic Universe, which allows access to full-text articles and reports from more than 6,000 magazines, newspapers, wire services, legal resources, reference books and government publications from around the world. One could purchase a loaded 2002 Lexus sedan for same price as a one-year subscription to this database.

Another heavily used index, PA Research II, indexes 1,900 periodical titles—1,200 of them full-text—and costs roughly the same amount per year as a new 650-square-foot, fiberglass, in-ground swimming pool. As for the annual cost of Compendex Plus, the electronic equivalent of Engineering Index, consider that for roughly the same price, an undergraduate at UB could pay for his/her tuition for four years and still have enough money left over for a semester of graduate school.

Of course, the costs of these electronic resources vary drastically from title to title, depending on content, coverage, access restrictions, etc. For instance, one might only sacrifice a month's rent in a one-bedroom flat to purchase a year's worth of the Historical Index to The New York Times. On the other hand, buying an electronic subscription to MLA International Bibliography might mean passing on that 10-day trip to Honolulu.

I suppose it would depend on the time of the year.

—Brenda Battleson and Austin Booth, University Libraries