2015 Charleston Library Conference

Objective: As collections evolve from models of access over ownership that incur significant subscription costs to the institution, the library investigated whether unmediated access to the Copyright Clearance Center's GetitNow service would be an alternative method of building our all-electronic collection by providing fast access to needed content that improves customer satisfaction and provides significant cost savings for the institution.

Methods: Library Administration initially picked 103 journals based on faculty recommendations, journal titles requested more than five times within the past two years via ILL, and unsubscribed titles listed as the top 20 subject specialty journals based on impact factors. The titles were added to Serials Solutions Link Resolver to facilitate direct access to content via Citation Matcher and/or PubMed LinkOut. Titles were continuously added from ILL requests exceeding the “rule of five.”

Results: During the first year, 183 requests from 114 unique requestors have been filled from 71 unique titles. 30 feedback surveys were returned documenting the ease and rapid delivery of needed content to support grant proposals, teaching, learning, and patient care.

Conclusions: Preliminary data support the use of GetitNow. Findings revealed the service is a cost-effective extension for burgeoning, all-electronic collections, and for connecting patrons to needed content easily and rapidly, and improving customer satisfaction. The service has also served to aid collection development decisions by documenting requests for content from unsubscribed journals based on actual use.