Options for dealing with serials prices Amey Park 27 Sep 1995 20:49 UTC

Kent State, along with every other library, is dealing with increasing
serial costs in times of zero budget growth.  I am preparing to
present a committee with options that other libraries are pursuing to
deal with this problem.

So far, I've come up with two:
1.  Cancel subscriptions
2.  Pay-per article plans

I've also heard of two universities that survey their faculty for
the titles of serials that they actually use.  They then identify a
core list of journals and cancel most (all?) of the rest of them.

I know that electronic journals are seen by some as a cost-savings
measure, but I don't think that is actually going to happen.
Electronic journals that I've seen (at least those coming from
publishers) cost the same, or more.

Is anyone else doing anything else?  I would appreciate any input.

Email me privately and I'll summarize for the list.

Thanks!

------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Amey L. Park, Serials Librarian
 P.O. Box 5190
 370 Library
 Kent State University
 Kent, Ohio  44242-0001
 Phone: (216) 672-3024, 672-3025, or 672-3026  ext. 59
 FAX: (216) 672-4811
 Internet: ameyp@lms.kent.edu
------------------------------------------------------------------------