Trends in Electronic Content at the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library

Abstract

The Cushing/Whitney Medical Library at the Yale School of Medicine has added thousands of electronic journals and many new research databases in the past five years. The library has gathered and analyzed data to measure trends in the use of these online resources. Data show that library patrons are using more research databases than they were five years ago. They make heavy use of electronic journals, although for the largest and most popular package at Yale, the top 17% of journals account for 80% of all use. The link resolver SFX has proven popular as well at CWML, and its use has risen 150% in its first full year of use. Electronic journals can be shown to save library patrons time. In 2003, electronic journals linked through SFX saved Yale researchers, faculty, and students 17,365 hours.