1. How Do Libraries Choose Journals?
Explain that selection is primarily the part I play as Head of Education. Also useful during accreditation or when adding a new program like PA.
David Flynn, MS(LIS)

2. Collection Development
Subject Specialists / Bibliographers
Core Title Lists
Suggestions and / or purchase requests from Faculty
Core Title Lists – Brandon / Hill, Doody’s, Rittenhouse
Use Ramona’s experience at Vanderbilt for subject specialists

3. Collection Development
Selection
Collection Maintenance
Access
Should we buy it?
Can we afford it?
How can we use it?
As selection is my role, I’m going to demonstrate how I go about determining the following factors.

4. Selection #1:PubMed Is this title currently indexed in PubMed?
If not, was it ever?

5. Selection

6. Selection

7. Selection

8. Selection

9. Selection
Only 36 journals currently indexed under substance related disorders, you have 15 of them

10. Selection

11. Selection #2: Other Databases
If this journal is not in PubMed, is it indexed in other databases?
Ulrich’s

12. Selection

13. Selection

14. Selection
Not currently indexed in PubMed which is why we always also check the resource itself
Not in PubMed, but in PsycINFO, Scopus and Web of Science which are all excellent, highly respected databases
Journal started publication in 2001, already included in PsycINFO by 2004 which is a good sign

15. Selection
#3: Peer Reviewed
Is this journal peer reviewed?
Ulrich’s

16. Selection

17. Selection #4: Impact Factor Web of Science / Journal Citation Report
Like NLM Catalog, indexed under Substance Abuse and Psychiatry

18. Selection
Point out ability to sort by quartile – there are 34 journals in this category, so there would be nine in the top 25%.
We don’t care about quartile – as long as a journal is indexed in a major database that’s good enough – but authors, particularly young authors trying to secure tenure, often do.

19. Selection #5: Collected by other Libraries?
Do our peer institutions purchase this journal?
Do our aspirational peers?
WorldCat
This can also be a double-edged sword. Will explain a few slides down.

20. Selection

21. Selection

22. Selection
Electronic access.

23. Selection
Print access.

24. Collection Maintenance
#1: Price
Can we afford to add this title?
Will this purchase preclude other purchases?
If not, is any of the content free? Is this free content embargoed?

25. Collection Maintenance
#2: Previous ILL Requests
Over the previous year, how many times were articles from this journal requested by our patrons?
How many of these requests were filled by other libraries?
Any issues filling these requests?

26. Collection Maintenance
#3: Collected by other Boston Libraries
Is this title owned by any of the Boston Library Consortium (BLC) members?
Is this title owned by Harvard?
Is this title owned by any libraries in Massachusetts?
Mention Nicotine & Tobacco Research here again as an example.

27. Access #1: Concurrent users
How many “seats” (concurrent users) are we granted?
What is the fee structure for a reasonable number of users? Unlimited?
Unless the journal is print only (which is still the case with some of our smaller Dental journals), e-journals only.
Mention One BU

28. Access
#2: Coverage
How many years of access are granted by a subscription?
Do we get full access to backfiles?
When does this coverage start?
Use example of Annals of Internal Medicine from yesterday.

29. Access
#3: Maintenance
Are we required to pay an annual maintenance fee for electronic access?
For non-society publishers, is this for each title or across the entire platform?

30. Access #4: Interlibrary Loan (ILL)
Are we allowed to loan this title to other libraries?
U.S. Copyright law has a provision stating, “Distribution is the sole right of the publisher”. This is why reprints existed back in the print journal days. Some titles read this to include ILL as well.

31. Access #5: Access after unsubscribing / title defunct
Do we get full access to years we subscribed?
Is there a maintenance fee for access?
What is the journal’s plan for archiving material? Portico? JSTOR? PMC?
The beauty of subscribing to a journal in print is that all issues we purchased are sitting on the shelf forever even after we cancel a title. We own the physical copies, they are ours. This is not the case with e-journals.