Usefulness and value of journals at ORNL
In 2000, the principal purposes of the information obtained from the articles read were most frequently primary research (34% of readings), background research (24%), and current awareness or continuing education (22%). These proportions of readings tended to be slightly higher for electronic/digital articles than for print articles. About 16% of the readings were for communication serrated purposes such as writing, making presentations or consulting/advising others. Other purposes, such as administration, accounted for the remaining purposes of reading. The ORNL respondents in 2000 indicated that they averaged 98 hours per year reading journals (96 hours in 1984). This estimate was based on estimated amounts of reading (99 readings in 1984 and 113 in 2000) and average time spent per reading (58 and 52 min, respectively). Because their time is a scarce resource, this amount of time spent was an indicator of the value of information gained from reading journal articles. The amount of time spent reading electronic/ digital articles was nearly identical to that of paper-based articles (i.e. 52.2 vs. 51.4 min per article). Thus, this indicator of value was also the same for the two media sources. Other indicators of value of information include the observation that respondents whose most recent reading was from an electronic/digital article tended to be older and to publish more articles.