NBSIR 78-1427

Impact of the New Copyright

Law on Interlibrary Loan in a

Research Library

Elsie Cerutti, Interlibrary Loan Librarian

Jane C. Tucker, Serials Librarian

Library Division

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D C. 20234

January 26, 1 978

Prepared for Library Division

National Bureau of Standards

U.S. Department of Commerce

Washington, D.C. 20234

NBSIR 78-1427

IMPACT OF THE NEW COPYRIGHT

LAW ON INTERLIBRARY LOAN IN A

RESEARCH LIBRARY

Elsie Cerutti, Interlibrary Loan Librarian

Jane C Tucker, Serials Librarian

Library Division

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D C. 20234

January 26, 1 978

Prepared for Library Division

National Bureau of Standards

U.S. Department of Commerce

Washington, D C. 20234

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, Juanita M. Kreps, Secretary

Dr. Sidney Harman. Under Secretary

Jordan J. Baruch, Assistant Secretary for Science and Technology

NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS, Ernest Ambler. Acting Director

IMPACT OF THE NEW COPYRIGHT LAW

ON INTERLIBRARY LOAN IN A

RESEARCH LIBRARY

by

Elsie Cerutti

Interlibrary Loan Librarian

National Bureau of Standards Library

Washington, D.C.

and

Jane C. Tucker

Serials Librarian

National Bureau of Standards Library

Washington, D.C.

ABSTRACT

A study of interlibrary loan borrowing at the

National Bureau of Standards Library in 1976 was made,

to forecast the impact of the new copyright law on the

Library budget. The study indicates that the majority

of journals are requested only once, and that a number of

foreign journals are requested. An analysis of subscription cost compared to interlibrary loan cost suggests

criteria for management decisions on subscription, as

well as testing the fairness of the CONTU guidelines in

their economic impact on libraries.
1

'
1

A feature of the 1976 General Revision of Copyright Law

(PL94-553) of great interest to librarians is Section 108 (g) , an attempt to define more precisely the concept of fair use

in interlibrary loan. At the request of the House Judiciary

Committee, the National Commission on New Technological Uses

of Copyrighted Works (CONTU) developed guidelines, included

in the Conference Report, to make the concept of "fair use" in

interlibrary photocopy activities more explicit.

The guidelines say that interlibrary loan is considered

to be a substitute for a subscription if:

" (a) with respect to any given periodical (as

opposed to any given issue of a periodical), [it]

filled requests of a library or archives (a

"requesting entity") within any calendar year for

a total of six or more copies of an article or

articles published in such periodical within five

years prior to the date of the request. These

guidelines specifically shall not apply, directly

or indirectly, to any request of a requesting

entity for a copy or copies of an article or

articles published in any issue of a periodical,

the publication date of which is more than five

years prior to the date when the request is made.

These guidelines do not define the meaning, with

respect to such a request, of' ...such aggregate
2

quantities as to substitute for a subscription to

[such periodical]. 1

In order to determine the impact of the guidelines on the

budget of the National Bureau of Standards Library, we undertook a study of the interlibrary loan requests for 1976, to

identify those titles which the library had borrowed frequently

enough to exceed the recommended limits for fair use.

THE LIBRARY

The National Bureau of Standards (NBS) is the laboratory

for physical measurements and standards for engineering,

manufacturing and commerce in the United States. The projects

of the Bureau include research in energy conservation, fire

prevention, consumer product safety, properties of materials

and computer technology. The Bureau headquarters is housed

in 27 buildings on a 233 hectare site in Gaithersburg, Md.

There are approximately 2600 staff members, about 1000 of

whom are physicists, chemists and engineers. More than forty

percent of the professional staff have doctoral degrees. The

staff is organized into four Institutes, which are subdivided

into divisions and sections. The support staff of the Bureau

includes the Office of the Associate Director for Information

Programs, of which the library is a division.

The main library satisfies part of the information

needs of the staff with a collection of 45,000 monographs

and 4500 periodical titles, of which approximately 2130 are

current journal subscriptions. In addition to the
3

main library there are information centers and section

collections, limited in scope and independent of the library's

control. If an information request cannot be met by materials

in the library, other information centers or division

collections, then a library staff member requests the item

or a photocopy from another information organization. Thus,

the main library handles all interlibrary loan requests.

PROCEDURE FOR DATA COLLECTION

Normally, interlibrary loan request slips from the year

in progress are selectively interfiled with older requests.,

including slips 30-40 years old. A slip is kept only if it

provides some unique information to indicate a borrowing

institution for future requests. However, for the year 1976,

all of the loan requests were saved in a separate file for

this study.

Several problems of definition naturally arose in

selecting periodicals from a combined serial-monograph file.

Annual reviews were excluded from the requests examined.

Technical report series of various institutions were included

unless they were cataloged by the Library of Congress as

monographic series. In those cases where we were not sure

whether the original journal or a translation was wanted,

we combined them as one title for counting. The greatest

problem arose in counting requests filled through the Library

of Congress (LC) because NBS Library may borrow journals from LC
4

rather than receive photocopies. Items borrowed were

counted as single requests, unless the number of citations

wanted was given by the user.

We sorted the titles into mutually exclusive groups

described by two criteria, number of requests per title and

whether the request was for pre-1971 issues, issues of a later date, or both. Of 1180 titles for which 2217 requests

were made, 734 requests (about 33 percent) were for pre-1971

issues. Interestingly, 776 titles (about 66 percent) were

single requests (see Figure 1). Time constraints made it

impossible to verify all 1180 titles, but we checked for

changes of title whenever 3 or more requests were made for

the same title. For issues published after 1970 no title

was shifted to the category of 5 or more requests by title

variations. The titles identified for possible subscription,

i.e., 6 or more requests for issues published after 1970, were

further analyzed as to number of requests per person and

division affiliation of the requester.

ANALYSIS

We found 28 titles with post-1970 issues requested 6 or

more times (2 percent of the total number of titles) which

comprised 260 requests (12% of the total requests). The

Library or one of the NBS sections does have subscriptions

to 8 of these titles, covering 75 requests. They are analyzed

in Table 1. Interlibrary loans were requested for issues of
5

these titles because of missing issues or insufficient

holdings

The remaining twenty titles, covering 185 requests

(8% of total requests) include both American and foreign

copyrighted materials. The American copyrights are listed

in Table 2, in order by subscription cost, and the foreign

journals in Table 3, in the same order. The new copyright

law presently applies only to works with American copyright,

but new international copyright agreements may extend the

same guidelines to foreign copyrights.

The journals identified for purchase using the guidelines range in price from $5.94 to $289.80, with a mean

price of $43.92; however, the median price is only $15.00.

This difference indicates the great variability in subscription costs. At the average subscription cost of these

2 journals, if an interlibrary loan costs $10 , 4 or 5 requests

would justify purchase. Almost half of the journals could

be purchased for less than the cost of borrowing them once

on interlibrary loan, but the cost of interlibrary borrowing

would have to go up to $25 to justify purchase of the most

expensive journal even at the rate of use shown.

As librarians know, the cost of holding a journal

includes more than the subscription price; it also includes

1 processing costs, which vary with the number of issues
6

received, the reliability of the publisher (claiming costs),

the binding decisions made and storage. Adding in these

costs would raise the point at which purchase becomes more

economical than borrowing slightly above the level specified

in the guidelines, at an interlibrary loan service cost of

$10 per request.

We next examined the group of journals for which 5

requests were made in 1976, for issues published after 1970.

These titles are shown in Table 4 (American imprints) and

Table 5 (foreign imprints)

.

In this group of journals, the mean price of an

American imprint is $47.75, slightly higher than the mean

of the group to be purchased under the guidelines, and the

median price is $20, slightly higher than the median in the

other group. The range of subscription prices is less, from

$8.00 to $152. All but 3 of the journals are worth purchasing

at an interlibrary borrowing cost of $10. Using the criterion

of borrowing cost vs. subscription cost, two of the foreign

journals also ought to be purchased. The additional holdings

costs discussed above would of course change the breakeven

point between interlibrary loan cost and holdings cost.

CONCLUSIONS

The CONTU guidelines were accepted as "a workable and

fair interpretation" 3 of the provisions of subsection 108 (g)

(2); the Register of Copyright is to make a study in five
7

years to see if the guidelines do "balance the interests of

the parties. "4 Authors, publishers, and libraries all have

economic interests in copyright laws, although this is not

explicitly stated in the guidelines. No reason is given for

the choice of five requests as the suggested limit of fair

use; however, it is interesting to note that a 1968 study of

borrowing vs. ownership costs identified an average breakeven point of 6 uses of issues published within the past 10

5 years

It is clear that for a particular journal title, the

guidelines are a very rough measure of the point at which

interlibrary loan is a true economic substitute for purchase.

The economic breakeven point is strongly dependent on the cost

of borrowing on interlibrary loan (see Figure 2) . Therefore,

any developments in interlibrary loan processing which

significantly change the service cost should be considered

in adjusting the guidelines in future.

Further, this study makes clear that the guidelines

should be used cautiously in an economic sense, however

rigidly they may be interpreted legally. The true cost of

holding journals is quite variable, and many would be more

economically purchased than borrowed. The first decision

to be made when a request is received is whether or not to

purchase the title. Of course, if the request is for a three-year old issue of a popular magazine, purchase may
8

not be a feasible option.

This points up an assumption in the guidelines which we

were unable to test, because of the way in which interlibrary

loan data have been kept. The assumption, looking at 5 years

of a journal in making subscription vs. borrowing judgments,

is that the same journals will be used from year to year.

It is not very economical to purchase a journal for the

next 5 years if it was needed this year and will not be

needed again. We plan to examine our interlibrary loan

records at the end of 1977, to see if the same journal

titles are as frequently requested in 1977 as in 1976. A

demand for different titles will strongly support the need

for a clearinghouse to supply copies of journal articles.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We would like to thank Joanne DuChez for helping to

analyze questionable titles as monographs or serials, Joan

Owens for help in filing, and Nadine White for patiently

retyping drafts.
9

REFERENCES

1. U.S. Congress, House of Representatives. General

Revision of the Copyright Law, Title 17 of the Un i t e

States Code Conference Report, 94th Congress, 2 nd

session. (House of Representatives Report 94-1733) pp. 72-73 .

2. Unpublished study on interlibrary loan cost done in

1975 by Elizabeth J. Yeates, former Chief, Library

Division, National Bureau of Standards.

3 . General Revision of the Copyright Law, Conference

Report

p . 73.

4 . General Revision of t he Copyright Law, Conferenc e Report

p . 9

5 . Library cost models: owning versus borrowing serial

publicationsGordon Williams, et al . Washington,

National Science Foundation, 1968.

gaaBS-.-irf
776

TOTAL NUMBER OF REQUESTS /TITLE
FIGURE 2

Comparative Cost of Filling a Request by Subscription or Interlibrary Loan
TABLE 1.

Journals Held by Library or Other Divisions

Title Holdings

No. of Requests

Total 1971+

Soviet journal of nondestructive testing

Combustion, explosion

and shock waves

Clinical orthopaedics & related research

Journal of bone and joint

surgery (Am. ed .

)

Consumers' research

magazine

Journal of applied

probability

Journal of bone and joint

surgery (Brit, ed.)

Organic mass spectrometry

1976 +

1975 +

1976 +

1976 +

Last 2 years

1964 +

1976 +

1968 +

20

19

13

11

10

8

7

6

10

17

12

6

10

7

7

6

94 75
TABLE 2

Journals With American Copyright

Requested More Than Five Times

No . of

Total

American Home 7

Popular Mechanics 7

Popular Science 11

Good Housekeeping 6

Changing Times 7

Health Laboratory Science 6

Air Conditioning, Heating

& Refrigeration News 14

Nation 6

Journal of Sports Medicine 14

Physician and Sports

Medicine 7

Applied Ergonomics 7

Bulletin of Environmental

Contamination & Toxicology 8

Contributions to Mineralogy

and Petrology 12

TOTALS 112

Mean price =

Median price

Requests

1971 +

6

7

11

6

7

6

14

6

14

7

6

8

12

110

$43.92

= $15.00

Subscription

Price

$ 5.94

7.00

7.94

7.97

9 . 00

9 .00

15 .00

19 .50

20.00

24 . 00

59 .80

96.00

289 .80

$570 . 95
TABLE 3

Foreign Journals Requested More Than Five Times

No. of Requests Subscription

Total 1971 + Price

1. Which (British Consumers

Assn . ) 13

2. Izvestiia VUZ

Tsvetnaia metallurgiia 16

3. Fortschritte der

Mineralogie. Beihefte 8

4. CIRP Annalen 10

5. British Medical Journal 7

II 6. Neues Jahrbuch fur

Mineralogie. Monatshefte 11

7. Societe Chimique de

France. Bulletin 16

TOTALS 81

13 7.00**

15 21.00

8 58.21*

6 82.15

7 85.00

10 142.60

16 198.00

75 $593.96

*Price of the Beihefte (Supplement) varies. Journal and

Supplement $58.21.

**Using£ = $2.80 as an exchange rate; quoted price «.£ 2 . 50 . Mean price = $84.85

Median price = $82.15
TABLE 4.

Journals With American Copyright

Requested Five Times

Subscription Price

1. Consumers' Digest 8.00

2. Family Handyman 8.50

3. Electrical Construction and

Maintenance 9.00

4. Journal of Occupational Medicine 20.00

5. Journal of Political Economy 20.00

6. Nuclear Materials Management 20.00

7. Nursing Mirror and Midwives

Journal 37.70

8. Biomaterials, Medical Devices

and Artificial Organs 45.00

9. Journal of Applied Meteorology 60.00

10. Geochemistry International 145.00

11. Toxicology and Applied

Pharmacology 152.00

TOTAL COST $525.20

Also included in this group was Consumer Reports, which the

Library keeps for one year only.

Mean price = $47.75

Median price = $20.00
TABLE 5.

Foreign Journals Requested Five Times

Subscription Price

1. Minerva $14 .00

2. Chemicke Zvesti 23.50

3. Architects' Journal 70.00

TOTAL COST $107.50

Mean price = $35.83

Median price = $23.50
0S-114A (REV. 7-73)

‘""U.S. DEPT. Oh COMM.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA

1 SHEET

1. PUBLICATION OR REPORT NO.

NBSIR 78-1427

2. Gov’t Accession

No.

3. Recipient’s Accession No.

. title and subtitle

Imoact of the New Copyright Law on Inter librarv

Loan in a Research Library

5. Publication Date

6. Performing Organization Code

. AUTHOR(S)

Elsie Cerutti and Jane C. Tucker

8. Performing Organ. Report No.

'. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME AND ADDRESS

NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20234

10. Project/Task/Work Unit No.

11. Contract/Grant No.

2. Sponsoring Organization Name and Complete Address (Street, City, State, ZIP)

same as above

13. Type of Report & Period Covered

14. Sponsoring Agency Code

15. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES

16.

ABSTRACT (A 200-word or less (actual summary ol most significant information. If document includes a significant

bibliography or literature survey, mention it here.)

A study of interlibrary loan borrowing at the National Bureau of Standards

Library in 1976 was made, to forecast the impact of the new copyright law on the

Library budget. The study indicates that the majority of journals are requested

only once, and that a number of foreign journals are requested. An analysis of

subscription cost compared to inter library loan cost suggests criteria for

management decisions on subscription, as well as testing the fairness of the

CONTIJ guidelines in their economic impact on libraries.

17.

KEY WORDS (six to twelve entries; alphabetical order; capitalize only the first letter of the first key word unless a proper name; separated by semicolons

)

Interlibrary loanj Copyright law,' Periodical subscriptions ^ CONTU guidelines,'

Library cost-effectiveness analysis

18.

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Springfield, Virginia 22151

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