Impact of Electronic Journals on Document Delivery Services

Collection management policies of libraries were mainly shaped by in-house use of materials in the past. Yet the emergence of electronic journals and their availability through publishers’ or aggregators’ web sites is changing this practice considerably. Libraries are no longer limited with the “one source – one user” model. This paper investigates the potential impact of the availability of electronic journals through the web sites of publishers or library consortia on document delivery services. It reviews the relevant literature first and reports the findings of the study with regards to the provision of articles through electronic journals and its impact on the Turkish national document delivery service. It then compares the number of articles supplied through the service with that downloaded from publishers’ web sites by the users of the consortium of Turkish academic libraries. Following questions are addressed: Is document “delivery” using traditional or electronic means becoming a withering practice in libraries? Would document delivery services exist as we know them today in the age of electronic journals, big deals, and library consortia? The paper discusses the implications of electronic journals available through big deals on national document delivery services along with some conclusions.