Primary Research Group Report on Library Database Licensing Practices

Primary Research Group has published a a new report entitled The Survey of Library Database Licensing Practices 2011 Edition:

"The 115-page report looks closely at how nearly 100 academic, special and public libraries in the United States, the UK, continental Europe, Canada, and Australia plan their database licensing practices. The report also covers the impact of digital repositories and open access publishing on database licensing. Among the many issues covered: database licensing volume, use of consortiums, consortium development plans, satisfaction levels with the coverage of podcasts, video, listservs, blogs and wikis in full text databases, spending levels on various types of content such as electronic journals, article databases and directories perceptions of price increases for various types of subject matter, legal disputes between publishers and libraries, contract language, impact of mobile computing and other issues."

You have to pay to get the report but ResourceShelf has summarized some of the highlights:

+ Consortium contracts account for a mean of 43.72% of libraries' total licenses for electronic content.

+ Prices for journals and market research rose the most in the past year.

+ Libraries in the sample required a mean of 7.74 hours of legal assistance in contract disputes though the range was 0 to 200 hours.

+ Less than 10% of higher education libraries use e-Book lending services, and all were very large libraries.

+ Nearly 43% of libraries with annual licensed electronic content spending of greater than $1.2 million annually track patron use of open access journals. Digital repositories now account for 17% of the journal articles obtained when libraries need an article that is not in their own collection.