Acquiring Articles through Unmediated, User-Initiated Pay-Per-View Transactions: An Assessment of Current Practices

Abstract

Depressed economic times often lead libraries to consider new practices, including alternatives to the traditional subscription model. This column discusses a pay-per-view (PPV) model for acquiring journal articles whereby a library creates an account with a content provider through which authenticated users can purchase articles at the library's expense. To gain insight into the current use of this model, the paper draws on both a literature review and the results of a survey assessing the practices of academic libraries with experience acquiring articles through unmediated, user-initiated pay-per-view transactions. The future of the PPV model as well as issues and challenges that it raises are also considered.

Unbundling the “Big Deal” with Pay-Per-View of E-journal Articles

“…In addition, some libraries may wish to publicize the PPV titles via links on the library website or other venues. 8 Perhaps the most important decision related to implementing PPV concerns who is allowed to spend access tokens. Article Select from WileyBlackwell allows three access control options.…”

For Your Consideration: Models for Digital Music Distribution in Libraries

“…3 Libraries have gone this route because it simultaneously decreases library budgets for journal articles 4 and increases the number of articles to which users have access. 5 This system has been effective because it allows libraries to simultaneously cancel high-price eJournals while loading records and allowing searches for a wider range of titles. The vendor was the same, in this case Elsevier, with its Science Direct product; the only change was the payment structure.…”

“…Those of us with relationships to these vendors must ask for these options and demonstrate that the business models of products such as Science Direct are revenue generators. 5 Another model worth taking a look at in the library world is patrondriven acquisition. Patron-driven acquisition works in a similar fashion to pay-per-view.…”

Breaking inertia: increasing access to journals during a period of declining budgets: a case study

“…PPV is the acquisition of individual articles from a publisher without a subscription to the journal. A typical arrangement is for a library to create an account with a publisher through which patrons can initiate the purchase of articles at the library's expense [1]. These transactions can be mediated, which means library personnel are required to access and retrieve the article for the patron, or unmediated, which means that patrons have direct access to the publisher's full inventory of publications.…”

“…These transactions can be mediated, which means library personnel are required to access and retrieve the article for the patron, or unmediated, which means that patrons have direct access to the publisher's full inventory of publications. Libraries are beginning to experiment with PPV services in response to budgetary cuts, the inflationary cost increases of journal subscriptions, and patron demands for greater access to online journals [1][2][3][4][5].…”