USER STUDIES - ELECTRONIC JOURNALS AND USER RESPONSE TO NEW MODES OF INFORMATION DELIVERY

Measuring in-library use of printed journals has always been difficult . Even when libraries monitor the use of their journal collections, da ta collected rarely go beyond the level of title and are often incompl ete, Participation in a European Union funded project on the delivery of electronic files of journals to end users (DECOMATE) has enabled th e London School of Economics (LSE) to collect qualitative and quantita tive data on the use of its journal collections, This paper describes how user statistics are being collected at the LSE, It looks at the di fficulties that have been encountered in collecting the data and at th e solutions that have been found. Comparisons will be made between pat terns of use within a traditional library environment and user behavio r as journal literature becomes available as electronic images, access ible over the network, The paper concludes with speculation about the benefits that may derive from collecting and analyzing user statistics . (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.