The main criteria we use is the number of people requesting articles from
a requested journal, the total number of times articles are requested,
reported high usage of a personal or departmental subscription, poor
transmission or photocopying of photos in a title that carries many
photos, cost (we will rarely subscribe to a journal costing more than $1000
unless more than 6 people request many articles over a consecutive 3 year
period), and demand criteria must be met over a period of 2-3 years.  Other
criteria use to select among a group of titles in high demand when we
can't subscribe to them all are: availability at a library within walking
distance; availability at another library which doesn't charge for ILL;
indexing status (must be indexed by Medline, Health or Cinahl); impact factor;
and faculty requests.  We get even pickier if we need to in terms of
department size, program importance, and subject strengths and weaknesses
as determined by percentage of titles owned that are indexed in List of Serials
indexed in Index Medicus.

Hannah King
SUNY HSC Library at Syracuse
kingh@snysyrv1
kingh@vax.cs.hscsyr.edu
766 Irving Avenue
Syracuse,  NY 13210
315-464-7109
315-464-7199 (fax)