As library budgets shrink and the cost of ejournals continues to rise, usage plays an increasingly important role in collections decisions. In 2013, the University of North Carolina (UNC) University Library Advisory Council's E-Journal Efficiencies Working Group created a document outlining best practices for increasing ejournal usage to assist UNC System libraries in improving their efficiency regarding ejournal spending. This article will address and elaborate on those practices, which include raising the visibility of ejournals on the library's website, using third-party services such as discovery tools and apps to create additional access points, facilitating outreach to faculty, and analyzing usage data.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.