The impact of online services on subscriptions to printed publications Available to Purchase

A survey was conducted among academic and special libraries to determine the extent to which these libraries have discontinued subscriptions to printed abstracting and indexing services as a result of the accessibility of equivalent databases online. Significant levels of cancellation were reported by libraries of all types. However, decisions to discontinue were only partly influenced by online access in some libraries and not at all influenced by online access in some others. It appears that online access has so far had only a relatively small effect on cancellation decisions. Some barriers to a more widespread migration to online access are identified. A noteworthy finding is that new libraries tend to move directly into electronic access on demand without ever going through the print on paper phase. A great accelerated level of migration is predicted for the next five to ten years.