One of the new variables that was added to Norwegian public library statistics a few years ago was the number of electronic serials subscriptions.
The instruction in English says: Count the number of subscriptions to electronic journals and newspapers at the end of the year.
- Include titles acquired for remote access and additional electronic licenses for access to titles held in print format .
- Include titles comprised in “additional access” or “cross access” in consortia agreements for the time of the contractual agreement.
- Exclude electronic journals that are free on the Internet.
Electronic serial: Serial published in electronic form only or in both electronic and another format.
- Comprises serials held locally and remote resources for which access rights have been acquired, at least for a certain period of time.
- Open access journals (free Internet resources) are excluded.
When small is big
In 2009 the total number of such subscriptions was slightly above two thousand. Ninety-eight percent of these subscriptions were purchased by just four libraries:
- Utsira, the smallest public library in Norwa, had 937 subscriptions
- Tromsø library and city archive had 800
- Tiny Kåfjord had 201
- Big Stavanger had 80
- Little Fosnes had 18
- Partial sum: 2036
- Total: 2069
Oslo Public Library reported none. What’s the point of such data, I wonder?
Gift horses
In Norway, free Internet resources are not counted. But free books count …
