3 messages, 206 lines: (1)-------------------------------- Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2000 13:29:53 -0800 From: Lesley Tweddle <Ltweddle@AUCEGYPT.EDU> Subject: Re: Serials Cuts Strategies Hallo Peter, Our University has actually increased our Library budget very generously over the last few years. But by 13 - 15% every year, for ever - just to keep the subscriptions we've got? No way. Result: misery. So, we did a YEAR-LONG survey of serials use (by counting reshelvings, since we don't lend them). No other library I've read about did this - a semester would be the maximum, but 2 or 3 weeks is more common I reckon. For each title I divided the cost by the number of uses all year, to get a cost-per-use figure. I sent details of the cost-per use of all their subscriptions to each department, strongly recommending they cancel any title in the "0 - 4 uses per year" bracket whose cost per use exceeded $50, since we could get an article even from abroad for less than that - while staying within the terms of copyright law, too. Four departments cancelled fewer than 10 titles each. One cancelled just over 20. All of the responders at the same time asked for new subscriptions. The rest either didn't reply at all (among the non-repliers, Science and Engnineering!) or replied that they wanted to keep them all. Relative to its purpose, the survey of use was a categorical waste of time, and I wish I knew how many other librarians who have done a use survey have found the same. When you think about it, confronting faculty with data that show how few of "their" journals are actually being read may be hamfisted, in terms of the psychology of the individual... On the other hand, just over two years ago the Library Administration decided in desperation to cancel our most expensive subscription, a major abstracting journal for which there was no Internet alternative, without consulting the department. There has not been a murmur from anyone. Maybe 6 years ago, we wrote to a department about one of those G***** & B***** publications that was about to quadruple its price, asking if we should cancel. No reply. We cancelled. Not a murmur ever since. One year ago, as an emergency, the Library Administration told us to cancel 92 titles that were available full text on EbscoHost, without consulting anyone. The only one we've been asked to reinstate is fairly cheap. (In fact, the type of journal that's available in an Internet bundle _is_ fairly cheap, and you'll have to cancel a large number to see much effect on your budget.) No-one has commented, although whenever we have asked a department's permission to do this, they have objected. Being a budget-conscious serials librarian can make one very cynical. However, I think there _is_ a tiny little moral, and it's this: don't agonise over the possibility that the journals you cut because they're on the Internet now, may not be on the Internet for ever. Half the time, nobody's reading them anyway. And at least, once you've cut them, inertia will keep them off your budget. Now, inertia is all that's keeping them on! Cheers, Lesley Tweddle Head, Serials Department American University in Cairo Library <Ltweddle@AUCEGYPT.EDU> (2)-------------------------------- Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2000 09:16:49 -0500 From: Ian Woodward <iwoodward@MAIL.COLGATE.EDU> Subject: Re: Serials Cuts Strategies If you have reliable use statistics you can rank order them by the ratio of annual expenditure to annual use to guide you to the portions of your collection where your getting little bang for the buck. If you haven't any use statistics you might find guidance in an article by Black in v. 41:4 (fall 1996) of Library resources & technical services. There is also an artcle by Bensman and Wilder in v. 42:3 of the same journal. This last is quite long and requires knowledge of esoteric statistical methods to be fully comprehended. It is not without use, however, and the burden of its argument is that priority ought be given (all else being equal) to the excision of commercially-published journals (as against society journals) and those covering subspecialties (over those covering an entire discipline). There is also a book by Bruce Kingma, The Economics of Access Versus Ownership, that you might find helpful. I believe both Project Muse and Electronic Collections Online provide for perpetual access to the electronic full text you have purchased. We have an agreement with a sister institution for guaranteed next day delivery of materials ordered on ILL. If you have a similar agreement, you could cut those titles to which your sister institution also subscribes, bar those for which access is typically had by browsing (newspapers, &c). It sounds like you have a problem of institutional politics, as everyone in this situation seems to. We have found all but a few of our faculty to be quite reasonable. However, I think no matter how impartial you are in devising a method for allocating cuts, some faculty member will come up with a meretricious objection. It is helpful if the relevant administrators trust your judgment and are willing to rule in your favor if matters of dispute come to be referred to them. This will help avoid allocating funds according to the preferences of the "squeaky wheels" on the faculty. Of course, such support from the provost or whomever else is responsible is not guarranteed (or even likely, in some cases). Best of luck. I. Woodward Serials Office Colgate University Libraries 13 Oak Dr. Hamilton, N.Y. 13346 USA Tel.: 315-228-7306 Fax: 315-228-7934 <iwoodward@MAIL.COLGATE.EDU> (3)--------------------------------- Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2000 08:30:56 -0600 From: Kaye Talley <Kayet@mail.uca.edu> Organization: University of Central Arkansas Subject: Re: Serials Cuts Strategies Peter, We just spent a good portion of this past year cutting around 500 titles from our holdings of approximately 2400. My boss just called me in one day in the spring and told me to cut $200,000 from our expenditures and this needed to be done by the fall. Of course there was no time for surveys or use studies! Anyway, my experience with surveys has been that they have been no help. Very few of the faculty are willing to make cuts and they all think THEIR journals are the most important. Our previous experience with a use study about five years ago indicated that we are paying for a lot of journals which nobody used. My boss and I mt with the dean of each college and their respective department chairs and explained our situation. We asked them to cut a pre-determined dollar figure from their expenditures by a certain date. Most of the departments complied with only a few that had to be badgered a little. Our efforts did not result in cutting $200,000 but we did cut around $165,000 worth of titles. This would not be my ideal way to go about this at all. But, considering the circumstances, we did pretty well. There are still journals on our shelves that are not used and we don't have all of the journals that we really could use but we have made somewhat of a start. I thought Peter's remarks were on the money. Kaye Talley Kaye M. Talley Coordinator of Technical Services Torreyson Library University of Central Arkansas 201 Donaghey Conway, Arkansas 72035 kayet@mail.uca.edu 501-450-5225 501-450-5208(fax) ---------- Original message ---------- Date sent: Fri, 14 Jan 2000 14:53:42 -0500 From: Peter Washkevich <washkevich@MARSHALL.EDU> Subject: Serials Cuts Strategies To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU > Our library is currently facing drastic serials subscription reductions, > due to costs we can no longer hope to keep up with. > > I'd like to know how other libraries have come up with strategies for > deleting subscriptions. > > We've talked about a departmental survey, in hopes of identifying core > journals. In fact, we pulled out the last one, done around 5 years ago. > Problem is, one department we looked at identified nearly all their > journals as core titles! > > We've discussed using electronic resources that include full-text titles > we subscribe to in hard copy, as replacement for the hard copy. But what > if the electronic title disappears from the online database? > > We've talked about going from department to department on campus, and just > laying out the numbers, asking for suggestions for cuts. > > I'm sure other libraries are faced with this same old story...serials > costs rising at a rate too fast for budgets to keep up with. When cuts > become a necessary reality, what strategies have others come up with to > reduce costs, without compromising the collection's ability to support > curriculum? > > Peter Washkevich / Marshall University > <washkevich@MARSHALL.EDU>
