Ownership versus
access: the CISTI source/
SUMO experience at
McGill University
Louis Houle
Background
The McGill University Library System is a
network of 16 individual libraries on two
campuses: the downtown campus with 15
libraries and the Macdonald campus with one
library. The Physical Sciences & Engineering
(PSE) Library, located on the downtown
campus at McGill, serves 12 departments
from the Faculty of Engineering and Physical
Science Departments of the Faculty of
Science (Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences,
Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Civil
Engineering and Applied Mechanics,
Computer Science, Earth and Planetary
Sciences, Electrical and Computer
Engineering, Geography (physical),
Mechanical Engineering, Mining &
Metallurgical Engineering, Mathematics and
Statistics, Physics).
These departments represented a total of
1,414 users in 1998/99: 218 faculty, 129
postDocs, 165 PhD, 325 masters and 577
undergraduates.
Until 31 May 1998 the PSE Library had its
own ILL office but since 1 June 1998, ILL
activities have been centralised in the main
library on the downtown campus.
Since 1998 the PSE Library has been
cancelling, on a yearly basis, hundreds of
journal titles just to balance its serials budget.
The stagnation of the serials budget, the
escalation in the cost of serials and the
Canadian dollar fluctuation have between
them left us with no other option than to
cancel journal subscriptions.
The great dilemma of access versus
ownership is greater than ever. Difficult
choices are being made and will have to be
made if we want to stay competitive in the
acquisition and diffusion of information for
our library users. This is why, in reaction to
the never ending journal cuts, in November
1996, PSE Library decided to change its
policy concerning the acquisition of journals.
It began a Subsidised Unmediated Ordering
(SUMO) service: the CISTI Source (formerly
SwetScan). The service is now in its third year
and seems to be a very viable alternative to the
traditional acquisition of journals.
The author
Louis Houle is Head of ILL/Document Delivery, McGill
University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Keywords
Document supply, Academic libraries, Self-service,
Finance
Abstract
Since November 1996, the Physical Sciences &
Engineering Library at McGill University has established a
new Subsidised UnMediated Ordering (SUMO) service for
its users: the CISTI Source/SUMO service, a one-stop
shopping service where the patrons (faculty, staff and
graduate students) can browse the CISTI Source Table of
Contents database over the Web, order their articles and
have them sent directly to their desktop by CISTI (Canada
Institute for Scientific and Technical Information) without
having to search McGill's OPAC. A blocking mechanism is
set in place so that currently owned journal subscription
articles cannot be ordered. This service has proved to be a
better alternative to the traditional acquisition of journals
(both paper and online) and the interlibrary loan service.
The CISTI Source/SUMO service has provided more
pertinent journals, more quickly and more readily than
before and in a much cheaper way than with any journal
subscriptions. It is one of the best ways to cope with the
rapid increase in journal prices.
Electronic access
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
available at
http://www.emerald-library.com
This paper is based on a presentation given at the
Sixth International Conference on Interlending
and Document Supply: Empowering society
through the global flow of information, held in
Pretoria, South Africa, 25-29 October 1999.
116
Interlending & Document Supply
Volume 28
.
Number 3
.
2000
.
pp. 116±122
# MCB University Press
.
ISSN 0264-1615