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>