Planning for the balance between print and electronic journals in the hybrid digital library: Lessons learned from large ARL libraries

Research libraries are currently expanding their electronic journal collections, and beginning to discontinue corresponding print journal subscriptions. The transition to greater numbers of electronic journals is not always a smooth one. Investigating this transitional situation, this study reported on the current status and practices of the top quartile of ARL libraries, and sought to determine if there was sufficient basis for the development and implementation of a best practices model to help other libraries make their own transition.; A two-fold Web survey method was employed. An initial Web survey was administered to the directors and chief collections officers. A second survey was administered to the same population during the later phase of the research in order to confirm the proposed planning model.; Survey results indicated that electronic journals had influenced activity surrounding print journal collections in these libraries. Respondents were in agreement that electronic journal spending would require more of their library budgets in the future. There are many factors that contribute to decision making surrounding the choice of journal format in the hybrid library. There is a moderately strong relationship between the influence of the factors regarding electronic and dual format journal choice. Of high influence are many human factors. Publisher enhancements are generally also influential.; The library leaders surveyed recognized the popularity of electronic information and see that over time their journal collections will shift from print to electronic. They also predicted future role shifts in which libraries and universities become more active in scholarly publishing and in electronic archiving.; This study explored a model to see if it could provide a framework for explaining the factors that influence the format selection for journals. The model does contain factors that influence the hybrid library, but the study brought into question the application of the model—or any model—as a best practice.