Print journal holdings in consortial projects

Abstract

The Canadian university library members of two consortial e-journal arrangements were surveyed to determine how many of the corresponding print journals had been cancelled as a result of participation in the online packages. The survey results indicated that the number of current print subscriptions held by the libraries had notably decreased. This paper discusses this loss of print and presents two options, with examples, for dealing with the archiving of print journals, Distributed Print Archiving and Back-up Repositories. The question of whether anything really needs to be done is also addressed.