Performance Measures for Electronic Journals

SUMMARY Libraries are spending increasing amounts to provide access to electronic journals. The decision to move toward digital collections is grounded in the belief that electronic journals offer significant benefits over their print counterparts. At present there is very little data to support that position because performance measures for electronic journals have not been fully developed. This paper describes a pilot study to test a methodology for evaluating electronic journals employing user-centered criteria. The study examined science and health sciences journal titles for which the library holds both paper and electronic subscriptions.