E‐Commerce, document delivery and academia
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb040758 |
| Pages | 18-27 |
| Published date | 01 March 2000 |
| Date | 01 March 2000 |
| Author | Anne Morris |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
E-Commerce,
document delivery
and academia
by Anne Morris, Loughborough
University
E-commerce is big business providing exciting
opportunities for library and information
professionals.
This
paper examines the range
of options available for libraries and
researchers to obtain or access documents
electronically. It lists suppliers and discusses
selection criteria, both informed by the results
of the eLib sponsored FIDDO (Focused
Investigation of Document Delivery Options)
Project completed
in
1999.
Introduction
Electronic commerce, more commonly known as
e-commerce is, according to the Sunday Times,
"the ability to sell goods or services online 24hrs a
day, seven days a week, through a remote website
that lists products and can take secure credit card
transactions".1 E-commerce is big business in the
UK where trading is four times the average for
Europe as a whole.2 Hewitt reports that one in six
homes now have access to the Internet and a
quarter of businesses in the UK are online. This
represents an increase of
200%
since last year.
Growth is expected to continue as costs of Internet
access fall and a wider range of tariffs, including
unmetered access, become available. Flat rate
subscription and unmetered access tariffs are
already available from suppliers such as BT,
Telewest, AltaVista and NTL.
Disappointingly, despite the potential, the number
of libraries making use of e-commerce so far is
small.3 No doubt this will change. This paper
examines the range of options available for aca-
demic libraries and researchers to obtain or access
documents electronically. In particular, it lists
suppliers, (although it is acknowledged that not all
provide services strictly in line with definition
given above), and discusses selection criteria, both
informed by the results of the eLib sponsored
FIDDO (Focused Investigation of Document
Delivery Options) Project which was completed in
1999.4
The
main
aim
of
the FIDDO project was to
disseminate reliable and objective data to enable
library and information managers to make in-
formed decisions about the feasibility, selection
and implementation of document delivery services
within their own institutions.
Suppliers and selection criteria
There are many document delivery suppliers in the
market place (see Table 1, and the FIDDO com-
piled Aslib web pages5). Some suppliers
specialise in particular subject areas while others
have a broader coverage. Other differences also
occur, for example, in delivery times, methods of
delivery, charges, and geographical coverage.
These differences and the wide range of document
access/delivery services available can make selec-
tion difficult; what criteria should academic
librarians use? Based on FIDDO research it would
appear that the following criteria are useful when
faced with a choice. It should be noted, however,
that not all of these criteria are new, some are just
as applicable to the paper world. Further, effective
application will require librarians to know what
their users want, need or demand and to have the
time and resources to evaluate services fully,
which is not always the case in the real world.
Cost
As with 'high-street' shopping it pays to shop
around. You can obtain the same document at
different prices from different suppliers.6 Some
publishers may charge a separate subscription fee
for the electronic version while others may charge
a small percentage of the cost of the printed copy,
but only if it is purchased too. Electronic only
publications are generally accessed on a subscrip-
tion basis but some do have a 'pay-as-you-go'
facility, such as the Ingenta Journals service.
Third party suppliers have a wide variety of
charges and payment mechanisms. Some suppliers
operate on a subscription only basis, others operate
solely on a 'pay-as-you-go' basis and some offer a
mixture of the two. In the case of 'pay-as-you-
go',
different methods of charging exist. With
some suppliers you have to pay a standard docu-
ment charge with a variable copyright fee, with
others you may have to pay a per-page rate, a
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