Page 107 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2015 Vol. 41

106 Journal of Library Science in China, Vol. 7, 2015

finding indicates that the guarantee rate of current issues is far too optimistic. Academic libraries
should take it seriously that some vendors may maintain the illusion of high guarantee rate and
affect the decision making of academic libraries by exaggerating statistical data . The majority of
1①
the unavailable-issue curve of electronic collection wings in the interval of 30%-50%. It implies
that a large volume of access failure imputed to the lack of corresponding back issue database
subscription.
After 1990, the unavailable-title curve of print collection climbs rapidly and continually. This
suggests a decrement and downtrend of the print collection. In combination with the finding
revealed above, “back issue guarantee rate wouldn’t reach a satisfying level by purchasing multiple
databases”, academic libraries should rebalance the coordinate development of print and electronic
collection in a more precise angle, making sure that e-only policy wouldn’t have a negative effect
on the back issue guarantee in the future. As a brand new thing, the collection continuity of OA
resources exceeds expectations. Yet, they have a long way to go before they can take the place
of the current resources which are accustomed and preferred by the academic community of the
Wuhan University.

2.3 Other issues need to be addressed

1) Though the timespan was limited to year 2013, the sample citations still contain some cited
references which were published in 2014. These cited references adorned certain curves with
“little tails”. With a backtracking procedure, 7 cited references, which were published officially
in 2014 were identified. Therein, 4 of 7 cited references’ affiliation is Wuhan University. There
are three causes as follows: 1) the proceeding papers which have been accepted by the conference
(No. 1, 2, and 7), 2) the papers which have been released online earlier (No. 3 and 4), and 3)
the publication delay of print format (No. 5 and 6). Table 3 shows that 6 cited references are
guaranteed by the electronic collection. Though, the Wuhan University Library had subscribed the
print format of IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Stochastic Environmental
Research and Risk Assessment, and Optimization, but they were still birds in the bush by the
end of 2013, noted as “unavailable”. Proved by the statistics of Table 3, the electronic collection
is more in tune with the immediate access of patrons and more meaningful to local academic
information exchange.
2) Linking to several OA journal databases, resource discovery systems and institutional
repositories, the Wuhan University Library has been attaching great importance to the integration
and popularization of OA journals. Many OA journal databases are built into the ExLibris, such
as DOAJ, J-STAGE, Highwire Press, etc. This practice provides great convenience for patrons in

① Martin Heijdra, director of East Asian Library, Princeton University, delivered this viewpoint in the Forum of Academic Library
Directors of China and North America featured by “the Future of Academic Library”, which was held on April 22-24, 2015 in
Beijing University. The title of his report is Taking back our options: getting out of the “big deal”.