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A printed format section at the New York Library.

Primary Research Group, a New York-based firm that does research reports, surveys and benchmarking studies for businesses, colleges, libraries, law firms, hospitals, museums and other institutions, recently released a new report regarding the use of print and electronic library collections of scholarly journals.  It is based on an investigation done with more than 550 higher education faculty in the United States and Canada. Faculty members would present their opinions on a variety of topics related to their preferences for print or paper vs. electronic journal formats.

Here are just a few findings from the report:

• Canadian faculty members were more likely than their American counterparts to think of the paper copies as a waste of time – nearly 45% thought so.

• In general, age was highly inversely correlated with the tendency to think of paper copies as wasteful and redundant when online versions were available.

• Only 13.86% of faculty members at research universities prefer paper to online journal formats.

• Only a third of community college faculty express support for increased spending on academic journals while about 64.3% of faculty in MA/Ph.D. granting colleges expressed such support.

More findings from a related Primary Research Group report:

• Libraries canceled an average of 53 journal titles in the past year.

• Average spending on print edition only subscriptions was $130,721, less than a sixth of total spending.

• 15.56% of libraries have paid a publication fee on behalf of an author from their institution.

• 42.22% of libraries with all new subscriptions to journals include electronic access.

It seems as though that the resources that academia uses are quickly changing and that faculty members do not agree whether or not it is a good thing.