Loss of Print Journals from Academic Libraries
While accurate figures are hard to find, there is anecdotal evidence that many academic libraries in the UK and the US are dramatically reducing the number of printed journals in this collections. There are good arguments to support this practice:
- Most users of journals prefer to access them electronically
- The amount of shelf-space freed up by removing journals can be considerable
- The are savings to be made by opting for digital-only subscriptions
However, there are also reasons to be cautious, as once the print copies of a journal have been removed access requires an ongoing subscription to the journal or journal database. This is fine as long as sufficient funding is available to maintain that subscription, which for many independent colleges and increasing for universities may not be the case. In addition, there is another factor that will directly affect those wishing to access academic theological journals who are no longer students at a College or University and lack any kind of Alumni access. While it might be possible to pay for physical access to a theological library, access to the electronic resources is restricted by license to current students/alumni only. This means that visitors cannot access the digital journals and may have no option but to take out a personal subscription to multiple journals or pay for downloading a single article, which regularly costs in the region of £30 in the UK.
Of course, the accessibility of journals by non-students is going to play little part in a College or University’s decision-making, as visitor fees usually make up a very small part of their budget. Nonetheless, it seems very likely that those outside of the College/University system will in coming years find it increasingly difficult to access academic theological articles. It is possible that this will serve to widen the divide between academia and the Church by shutting pastors and Bible teachers off from the fruits of scholarship.
This may be one of the reasons why visitor numbers to BiblicalStudies.org.uk continue to rise, because it provides a means of accessing scholarship free of charge.
What do you think? Feel free to share your comments and experience of trying to access theological journals below.
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