Best Practices for Increasing Ejournal Usage

As library budgets shrink and the cost of ejournals continues to rise, usage plays an increasingly important role in collections decisions. In 2013, the University of North Carolina (UNC) University Library Advisory Council's E-Journal Efficiencies Working Group created a document outlining best practices for increasing ejournal usage to assist UNC System libraries in improving their efficiency regarding ejournal spending. This article will address and elaborate on those practices, which include raising the visibility of ejournals on the library's website, using third-party services such as discovery tools and apps to create additional access points, facilitating outreach to faculty, and analyzing usage data.