[Eril-l] Chapter usage interest from librarians? Question about BMJ posting

[Electronic Resources in Libraries discussion list]

BMJ customer contacts recently got an e-newsletter that included a link to this "Q&A":

https://bmjinsiders.com/2025/09/26/the-move-to-counter-5-1-questions-from-the-road/

It included this interesting claim: "So, instead of just counting the whole book, librarians are focusing more on how individual chapters or sections are used. This gives a much clearer picture of which parts of a book are most popular."

I am really curious to know of librarians who really do want to know this chapter-level usage, and how it could be useful to know "which parts of a book are most popular", since we thus far are not offered an option to purchase/license just parts of books.

And it just so happens that emphasizing chapter usage figures makes for much larger total usage numbers, which I can imagine a publisher would use to try to sell more books.
Call me cynical, but I would genuinely like to hear more from librarians who really do something useful with chapter level usage data.

Thanks!


Melissa Belvadi
Collections Librarian
University of Prince Edward Island
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