USAGE PATTERN OF ONLINE JOURNALS IN FACULTY OF MEDICINE LIBRARY, ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY

By Aslam MehdiLibrarian

JN Medical College ,AMU

ETBS-2012

Overview

Introduction Background of ERMED Hypothesis Objectives of the Study Methodology General Findings/Results Recommendations for future study Conclusion

Various consortia & initiatives for e-journals :

UGC-Info net : Launched in 2003 covering 200 universities with 2011 journals in health sciences.

HELINET : Launched by RGUHS in 2003, 650 journals, Ist e-consortia in India .

ERMED :Electronic Resources in Medicine, Started in 2008 by NML. Covered 98 medical college so far, 2400 journals .

medIND: Developed by ICMR & NIC in 1986, 40 biomedical journals with back volumes.

J-gate : Launched in 2001 by Informatics India , 7739 journals .

Hinari : Launched in 2002 by WHO,7000 journals, accessible for low income countries only.

Salient Features of ERMED

Features :

Hypothesis:

Consortia based subscription of online journals has enhanced the flow of health information in India.

Substantial increase in the use of E- journals at the faculty of medicine Library.

Shifting paradigm from Print journals to Online journals.

Objectives of the Study To analyze the Usage patterns of e-

journals in a university medical college for identifying the areas for further research and development.

To measure the effectiveness of the consortium; ERMED (Electronic Resources in Medicine) launched in 2008 by National Medical Library, Ministry of Health.

To make an evidence based study of the actual usage of this consortium.

Methodology

Focused on usage statistics gathered as a web administrator of the consortium.

Statistics gathered from Feb 2010 to Jan 2011. Based on vendor supplied usage statistics from

publishers. ‘Only online journals usage data was gathered and

analyzed . A database was created with all information of the

users and usage for this period. Results were imported into Excel sheet and trends were analysed using simple statistical methods.

Actual usage of 1780 health and allied Sciences journals through ERMED consortium was analyzed.

General Findings/Results

It was found that Online journals were accessed 4 times higher than the print journals (710 online journals while clientele consulted 165 print journals only)

Total number hits at ERMED by the 224 faculty & 486 PGs was 20,369 only.

Table of Content Page was most the preferred option with 5625 hits.

Total number of full texts downloads was 4042 only.

Database Search Page was less preferred option which was hit 2726 times only.

General Findings/Results Post Graduates/Senior Residents (486) accessed more

journals than undergraduates (1050).

Only six publishers were found most widely used & searched with above 200 hits.

Journals with higher impact factor were accessed widely& downloaded most frequently.

It was amazing that out of 1780 journals covered under the consortium; only 44.3% journals were used and 55.7% were unused.

Surprisingly facilities like Journal Page list and View & Print option were not used by the scholars at all.

Cumulative Usage Of ERMED

Feb.10 Mar.10 Apr.10 May 10

Jun.10 Jul.10 Aug.10 Sep.10 Oct.10 Nov.10 Dec.10 Jan.110

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

3511287

26283598

44285348

7572

9982

12570

15743

18589

20369

Months

Cum

ula

tive U

sage (

Feb.1

0 -

Jan.1

1)

Navigation Tools/Access Options

453

2726

444

4067

601

5618

598

3216

1704

942

0 00

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

Downloads per Month

83

157 173132 141 117

439

363

447

924

573518

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000

Feb.10 Mar.10 Apr.10 May 10 Jun.10 Jul.10 Aug.10 Sep.10 Oct.10 Nov.10 Dec.10 Jan.11

Tota

l Dow

nloa

ds (F

eb.1

0 -J

an.1

1)

Months

Current vs. Archives Usage

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000

Feb.10 Mar.10 Apr.10 May 10 Jun.10 Jul.10 Aug.10 Sep.10 Oct.10 Nov.10 Dec.10 Jan.11

Curr

ent v

s. A

rchi

ves u

sage

(Feb

.10

-Jan

.11)

Months

Current Archives

Top 10 Subjects Accessed

309256 280

592

433

313 306

432491

279

26 30 1994

6319 27 39 29 28

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

No. of Hits No.of Journals

Print Versus Online Journals

915

7

41

70

6 10 11

2226 30

19

94

63

1927

3929 28

0102030405060708090

100

Print Online

Top 10 Publishers Accessed

20.1318.98

11.8910.75 10.38

9.10

5.35 4.71 4.44 4.25

0.00

5.00

10.00

15.00

20.00

25.00

Top

10 P

ublis

hers

(in

%)

Top 10 Journals Accessed

8

6.55

6.31

6.14

5.82

5.58

5.5

5.17

5.09

4.85

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

American Journal of Nephrology

Annals of Surgery

Journal of Glaucoma

Annals of Otology, Rhinology & Laryngology

Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics

Kidney International

British Journal of Ophthalmology

Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology of India

American Journal of Cardiovascular Drugs

Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery: American Editon

Top 10 Journals (in %)

Top 5 Indian Journals Accessed

58

28

40

37

27

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Indian Journal of Nephrology

Journal of Anatomical Society of India

Indian Journal of Medical Research

Indian Journal of Otolaryngology & Head Neck Surgery

Indian Journal of Dermatology

Top 5 Indian Journals (in %)

Institutional Approach to Online Journals

39751%

26234%

11915%

Medical College

Institute of Ophthalmology

Dental College

Top 5 Journals Accessed in J.N. Medical College

9925%

8121%

7619%

7218%

6917%

American Journal of Nephrology

Annals of Surgery

Annals of Otolaryngology, Rhinology & LaryngologyJournal of Paediatric Orthopaedics

Kidney International

Top 5 Journals Accessed in Inst. of Ophthalmology

7632%

6828%

3715%

3113%

2812% Journal of Glaucoma

British Journal of Ophthalmology

Archives of Ophthalmology

Journal of Paediatrics Ophthalmology & Straubismus

Ophthalmic Research

Top 5 Journals Accessed in Dental College

2928%

2726%

1918%

1716%

1212%

Journal of Oral Implantology

Implant Dentistry

British Dental Journal

Journal of Oral & Maxillofacial Pathology

Journal of Conservative Dentisitry

Top 10 ERMED users (Colleges/Institutes) in India

4593235%

1477811%11207

9%

106558%

102938%

90657%

77856%

76536%

60255%

59215%

All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New DelhiDr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, New Delhi

Institute of PG Medical Education & Research, PondicherryGovernment Medical College, Trivandrum

National Medical Library

Tamil Nadu MGR Medical University, Chennai

University College of Medical Sciences, New DelhiGovernment Medical College, Kozhikode

G.S. Medical College, Mumbai

All India Institute of Speech & Hearing, Mysore

Recommendations for future study:

Examine the impact of online journals in all health science libraries covered under ERMED.

Analyze which journals have been accessed maximum in all medical libraries in India.

Find out the list of journals which have not been accessed at all.

Conduct a survey of all the health science libraries in India to gather data regarding the patrons & user’s satisfaction.

Conclusion :

Evidence shows that there is a shifting paradigm from print to online even in a developing country like India.

Consortium like ERMED has enhanced the flow of health information and facilitated the access of scholarly publications at the campus.

Finally it is important to note that the study was limited to a single library only while the Consortium covers 98 medical libraries.

Thank you!