Ownership versus access: the CISTI source/SUMO experience at McGill University Available to Purchase

Since November 1996, the Physical Sciences & Engineering Library at McGill University has established a new Subsidised UnMediated Ordering (SUMO) service for its users: the CISTI Source/SUMO service, a one‐stop shopping service where the patrons (faculty, staff and graduate students) can browse the CISTI Source Table of Contents database over the Web, order their articles and have them sent directly to their desktop by CISTI (Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information) without having to search McGill’s OPAC. A blocking mechanism is set in place so that currently owned journal subscription articles cannot be ordered. This service has proved to be a better alternative to the traditional acquisition of journals (both paper and online) and the interlibrary loan service. The CISTI Source/SUMO service has provided more pertinent journals, more quickly and more readily than before and in a much cheaper way than with any journal subscriptions. It is one of the best ways to cope with the rapid increase in journal prices.