Perceptions of American Library and Information Science Periodicals Among Central European Librarians

During the first four months of 1996, ASSIST MTERNATIONAL INC. conductcd an assessment of the Cooperative Pcriodical Program through which library and information science periodicals provided gratis by American publishers are delivered to 51 libraries in 13 countries of central Europe and the forrncr Soviet Union. The CPP is the largest source of English languagc library and information scicnce periodicals among the 35 libraries that responded. Librarians gavc the periodicals high ratings in terms of their value and use. Almost half of the periodicals '(47%) were rated as Very Important in terms of their value and use by a majority of the librarians; 73% of the titles were regarded as either Very Important or Important by at least 77% of the librarians; and 93% had mean ratings between the cquivalent of Very Important and Important. Write-in responses confirmed the numerical ratings.