Bridging library resources across the Pacific: the characteristics of US academic users and their use of a gateway service

摘要

This study investigates the characteristics of US users and their document request patterns at the Gateway Service Center of the Chinese Academic Journal Publications at a research university library and evaluates the effectiveness of the service. The study shows that the center's primary users are faculty, graduate students, and researchers in the areas of Chinese history, literature, language, philosophy, and politics. Their requests generally link to research-related projects and focus on articles in the arts and humanities and social sciences, published in 1980s in Mainland Chinese publications. The center has significantly higher average fill rate and faster turnaround time compared with the ordinary ILL services.