Library Resources - Cancellations

     

Over the past 10 years, the Library acquisitions budget has remained stagnant while facing annual publisher price increases of on average 6-8% per year.  Over the past year, the situation has become unsustainable due to the rapid fall of the Canadian dollar.  Approximately 82% of the acquisitions budget is allocated to purchases from US vendors and publishers.   There was a shortfall in 2014/2015 of approximately $230,000.  The Library was able to cover this deficit through one-time fall in from staff retirements.

In 2015/16 Acquisitions is facing a deficit of approximately $500,000. This budget year, monograph and other one-time purchases have been reduced by approximately $150,000. Funds were also realized through negotiating a new licence with Access Copyright ($96,000). Despite these efficiencies, the Library cannot cover the Acquisitions shortfall and must look to other means to balance the budget.

The Library Collections and Assessment Team (CAT) reviews the purchase of all resources on an ongoing basis.  In order to respond to the current budget crunch, CAT has done a thorough review of current subscriptions, based on the following criteria:

  • Usage statistics/cost per download
  • Accreditation
  • Comments from faculty
  • Cost of acquiring material via other means
  • Impact factor
  • Overlap in content/comparable resources

As a result, the following resources have been discontinued (total $336,446.00):

  • Canadian Literary Center
  • Books 24x7
  • Books in Print
  • Springer Journals
  • CRSP
  • Compustat
  • Cambridge Journals
  • NYT and WAJ micro-digital newspapers
  • AccessUN
  • 53 individual ejournal titles

Some of the most heavily used titles contained within the large packages have been ordered as individual subscriptions.  The Library will continue to provide access to less used journals through our interlibrary loan service and/or  procurement through alternative means, for example, pay per view when appropriate and possible. 

Throughout the assessment process, all efforts were made to not disadvantage one academic discipline over another.  All usage statistics are available on request. For a complete list of titles affected by the cuts see:   Cambridge with Subjects, Cancellation with Subjects, Springer with Subjects.

These are tough measures, but they were unavoidable given the fiscal reality.  The Library will continue its ongoing review of all purchases in order to respond to the ongoing inflationary increases. 

If you have any questions or comments please contact Barbara Nelke, Chair of the Collections and Assessment Team at Barbara.nelke@uregina.ca or at (306)585-5099.