Response+to+Summer+2006+Answer+1

**Summer 2006 Question 1**
In a traditional print world, libraries purchased books and other materials. Once purchased, the materials were owned by the library until a decision was made to sell or discard them. In an electronic world, many books, journals and other materials are leased rather than purchased. Librarians are thus faced with a variety of management issues, including dealing with licensing issues, developing infrastructure, and providing different kinds of customer services.

Discuss the major issues surrounding the “ownership” versus “access” debate. What are the advantages and disadvantages of both the purchase/ownership and lease/access models? Discuss the short-term and long-term implications for an information agency of your choice.

Susan, you are right, because The UTK libraries have (owned) Serials Such as Health Physics Journal, the old copies preserved on microfish, recent/update ones are leased/ e-access. Thanks for the corrections, Laila
 * //Question for those of you answering this? Are we talking about i.e. Serials ownership or access or are we talking about monographs (i.e. again... Netlibrary for example).... I'm looking at it from a serials perspective? More ideas? Susan//**

//__Ownership:__//

Advantages: Disadvantages:
 * you always own it, but have to store it (and maintain it)
 * May not be the most requested item in the future (Discover vs. Scientific American)
 * access to the material – can lay hands on it in minutes if properly shelved/arranged
 * “traditional” way of doing things – both staff and patrons comfortable with this setup
 * Storage space
 * do not own Technology, Information, communication, Computer Sciences (growing fields),and soft/hardware instructions books, because they modify their version very fast, in 2002 the UTK library collected (owned) 2 books of Macromedia, Flash MX (#6) and Dreamweaver 2002 instructions books, the new Version is Macromedia# 8, Flash Professional 8, but if UTK library would lease these books, the library would lose the lease’s money, but the library will gain the space and the cost of preservation. We have to study the cost analysis before adding any new collection in the growing fields.
 * Preservation issue (cost mony)
 * Hard copy preservation in/out of house repair (Recase, rebinding, you have to have a disaster plan "fire, water, micro organism, Radioactive material, chemical spill damages"
 * limited by budget – can’t afford everything that’s needed/wanted
 * not accessible to patrons not physically in the library

//__Access:__// Advantages:
 * Do not have to store it or physically maintain it, repair, reshelve it, etc.
 * Remote Access for digitized products
 * "Packaged Deals" with vendors often contain more subscriptions than you would normally be able to buy.
 * can search electronic material for keywords/subjects/authors/titles/etc. and get results in seconds

Disadvantages:
 * Vendors may change or go out of business
 * Subscriptions (i.e. for serials) must be continued because you can lose your "archive" of information
 * Licensing restrictions (i.e. for Document Delivery/ILL)
 * extremely expensive, with costs rising each year
 * not all patrons and staff comfortable with notion yet – hard to “convert” them
 * requires costly equipment/staff time to setup and maintain connectivity to the databases

__//Implications (in info setting of your choice)//__ Short-Term Long-Term
 * (academic library) "hybrid" model, but slowly phasing out physical purchases, especially in periodicals/serials. Continue to acquire as many electronic databases as possible under budget restraints
 * (academic library) Continue to instruct faculty/staff on how to properly use these resources so they will be more comfortable and able to find needed info.
 * (academic library) what to do when database subscriptions are simply too expensive to maintain? Forced to make budget cuts in other areas (likely staff) since we can’t give up our subscriptions that we now rely so heavily on
 * (academic library) Databases should get easier to search/retrieve items.