---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2000 10:03:56 -0400
From: Steve Black <blacks@MAIL.STROSE.EDU>
Subject: Re: Serials Cancellation Formulas

A few years ago, I did a presentation at our Eastern New York chapter of
ACRL on the topic of a formula.  I presented it as core collection
definition, but it applies to cancellation projects.  I must have sent this
on request to a dozen individuals by now, so since it seems to be of general
interest, here's the outline of the pertinent parts of my comments.

 If you want to see the whole thing, with charts, and you can receive Word
attachments, e-mail me and I'll send it to you.

Steve Black
Reference, Instruction, and Serials Librarian
Neil Hellman Library
The College of Saint Rose
392 Western Ave.
Albany, NY 12203
(518) 548-5494
blacks@mail.strose.edu

GOALS FOR THIS CORE COLLECTION DEFINITION PROJECT
 Involve faculty in transition to online
 Define each academic discipline's core collection
 Identify journals for which online access is an acceptable substitute for
print, and make
cancellations accordingly
 Create decision support data for budget reallocation
 Use defined core to guide future serials collection development

MEASURES USED FOR THIS DEFINITION OF A CORE COLLECTION
 Price per use of each journal derived from one-year use study (1996)
 Faculty survey (each department asked to list the journals most essential
for their
students to use in their course work)
 Citation impact factor and cited half-life from ISI's Journal Citation
Reports on CD-
ROM--Social Sciences Edition
 Magazines for Libraries --journal scored as 3 if listed as a basic title, 2
if listed, 1 if not
listed

FORMULA USED TO RANK JOURNALS
1. Inverse of price per use times Katz score PLUS
2. Impact factor times cited half-life,
3. Then double the departmental mean of 1 plus 2, for titles picked by
faculty as "most essential"

RATIONALE BEHIND FORMULA
 Inverse of price per use gives a high score to cost-effective titles
 Katz score of 1,2, or 3 reflects librarians' input on quality, and acts as
a multiplier on
the cost-effectiveness of the journal
 Impact factor times cited half-life produces a score that reflects
inclusion in Social
Sciences Citation Index, stature of journal in its field, and the long-term
usefulness of the
journal's articles
 Mean times 1 gives equal weight to faculty pick vis-…-vis other factors
 Additive formula allows rankings even if data are missing

HOW THE RANKINGS ARE TO BE USED
 Draw a line at average formula score for each department-starting point for
defined
core
 Collaborate with faculty to move some titles above or below line, if
necessary
 Identify titles below line (not part of core) that will be available online
to College of
Saint Rose students
 Check for each to determine whether online version is an acceptable
substitute for print
 Do not renew non-core journals covered adequately by selected online
package(s)
 Use core list in future decision-making, and make available departments'
core lists

COSTS AND BENEFITS OF THIS PROJECT

Costs
 $690 for JCR-Social Sciences
 substantial time invested, including by faculty
 use study costs

Benefits
 Good reference for current and future collection development
 Raises comfort level for replacing print with online
 Consistently applied criteria help maintain fairness
 Narrows number of journals to check whether online is an acceptable
substitute for
print
 Aids online package selection and journal collection budgeting [Graphic 2]
 Collaboration with faculty yields important benefits

SUMMARY OBSERVATIONS
 All serials data sources have validity and/or reliability problems
 Details of formula much less important than principle of ranking journals
based on as
many measures as possible
 Results work within, but not between, departments
 Administrators appreciate this level of analysis-very helpful at budget
request time
 Any close look at a serials collection reveals errors & anomalies-good
thing, but
creates additional work
 Online journals make information literacy instruction more difficult and
more
important than ever, but having a defined core print collection should help