This guide was created in the Spring of 2010 to inform and communicate with the NMSU community about the Library's serials cancellation process. During spring semester 2010 the Library hosted many informational sessions, seeking feedback from academic departments and colleges on specific title cancellation choices. Meanwhile the Library sought relief from the University Administration, requesting that the University Administration both restore the 2.5% reduction in indirect costs from the research overhead and that it institute a base percentage increase in the library's budget. The NMSU Library's base budget has not received a dedicated, annual increase from NMSU administration in 20+ years. Throughout spring 2010, the Library sought to make the cancellations as painless as possible; however, in the end, the sum total of all title cancellations was 723 titles, at an estimated cost of $578,311.26. This cancellation has given the NMSU Library and its users a little bit of breathing room. We do not anticipate another serials cancellation of this magnitude for at least 2 years.
In Spring 2010, the NMSU Library launched a large scale materials reduction project. Inflation rates for journals and databases continue to increase. The funding lines used to supplement the Library’s materials budget, including indirect cost revenue and General Obligation Bond funds, have decreased. In order to balance the materials budget, a $575,000 reduction (27%) of the materials budget was necessary.
The following criteria were used to guide decision-making for this project: high cost-low use titles; low cost-low use titles; titles with patterns of large cost increases over time; and titles for which full-text access is available through other database subscriptions. Library staff worked together with other campus faculty to prioritize titles to minimize consequences for teaching and research.
The cancellations involve 723 print and electronic journals, databases, standing orders, and microforms totaling $578,311.26 (2010 subscription prices). After December 2010, NMSU will no longer have access to these subscriptions (see list below). In addition, students, faculty and staff will lose access to over 1,300 journals from the Springer and Elsevier/Academic Press publishing groups. In order to make the necessary cancellations, multi-year and consortial packages with these publishers were discontinued. A list of titles from these discontinued packages is found below.
The Library will continue to offer information delivery services (Request It!), but these services are vulnerable in a climate where the majority of academic libraries are also cutting subscriptions. Although interlibrary loan is an excellent way to provide access to infrequently-used articles, it can quickly become very expensive if large numbers of users request articles from the same journal resulting in the Library paying copyright clearance or other fees to obtain information. For these reasons, interlibrary loan and document delivery alone will not offset journal cancellations.
The NMSU Library is not alone in facing this problem. Other academic libraries face similar challenges. Unless fundamental changes occur in the scholarly communication market, faculty, students, and staff everywhere face a future of less access to information and at higher costs.
The NMSU Library is working to strengthen our ability to access information in this challenging environment. We are investigating new partnerships with other libraries to maximize access to resources while minimizing costs. We are also exploring digital preservation services to sustain archival access to our subscribed electronic collections. The Library looks to the successful passage of GO Bond B, which would help offset inflation by approximately $300,000 for FY12. We will also continue to investigate alternative revenue streams needed to offset inflation and limit future cancellations. However, we anticipate further cancellations will be necessary in the 2011-2012 academic year.
Thank you for your support with these difficult decisions. Please contact us with your questions or if you would like to discuss these issues.
Last updated: September 15, 2010
We have finalized revisions to the list of titles the NMSU
Library will be cancelling (see list below) for FY 2011. For the most part, journal subscriptions will continue
until December 2010 and electronic journal subscriptions will be available
until December 31, 2010. Most of the databases that we are cancelling are
fiscal year subscriptions (July-June) and will no longer be available after
June 30, 2010.
In the event that research overhead funding is restored to
the Library, we may not need to cut as deeply into our serials subscriptions as
we had planned. Considerations for removing titles from our cancellation list
are:
1) Electronic
journal subscriptions that comprise a publisher’s package and cannot be
unbundled from the package and cancelled without cost increases.
2) Print
or electronic titles for which we have no online access from our full text
databases.
3) Titles that support new and/or emerging
research and teaching programs?
4) Titles that support departments or programs,
which were heavily affected by the project (more than 27% of overall
allocation)
The Library wishes to thank all of you who worked with us so tirelessly to craft a cancellation list that did the least harm possible. Many things will be up in the air over the summer. We will post an update on this project prior to the start of fall semester and wish everyone a restful summer.
We have compiled a list of titles to cancel based on the following criteria: