During one review, we asked departments to rank journals on a scale as follows:

1=essential for teaching/research; 2=nice to have but not critical; 3=not needed.

This approach worked well , and we’re fortunate that the faculty were very cooperative overall.

After years of flat budgets, we don’t have much left to cancel, and most of the high priced titles are either PPV or available via packages. For journals with an embargo, the JR5 report is helpful in determining how much current or hot-off-the-press articles are in demand (or not).

Hope this helps!

--Jennifer

Jennifer L. van Sickle M.L.S.

Science Librarian and E-Resources Coordinator

Trinity College Library

300 Summit St.

Hartford, CT USA 06106

860-297-2250 phone

From: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@LISTSERV.NASIG.ORG] On Behalf Of Melissa Belvadi
Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2016 9:05 AM
To: SERIALST@LISTSERV.NASIG.ORG
Subject: Re: [SERIALST] reviewing journal subscriptions

Does that method get sufficient "unnecessary" replies to solve your budget issues? In my experience, faculty will overestimate the value of journal titles with which they are even vaguely familiar, to the point where we simply can't balance the budget using their responses.

I approach this not by asking faculty if we should keep something, but by looking at the usage data, and for the low usage journals in their area ask them if they can explain why the specific usage numbers for specific journals are so low, and that unless there is an explainable anomaly in that data, we will have to cancel that journal. That tends to take away their opportunity to give responses that are based on ancient history, so to speak, and prepares them to understand that our decisions are rational and evidence-based.

Melissa

On Wed, Jul 6, 2016 at 5:46 PM, Abbigail C Gregg <acgregg@geneva.edu> wrote:

I email the department secretaries with lists of the journals for that dept. and say “hey, ask your faculty what’s necessary and what isn’t.” We try to eliminate high-cost material that faculty doesn’t think is necessary.

Abbi Stauber

Library Technician – McCartney Library

Geneva College

724-847-6693

acgregg@geneva.edu

From: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@LISTSERV.NASIG.ORG] On Behalf Of Amanda Fleming
Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2016 11:43 AM
To: SERIALST@LISTSERV.NASIG.ORG
Subject: [SERIALST] reviewing journal subscriptions

Hello All,

I am working on a project to review journal subscriptions for each academic department. What do you do? What information do you provide to faculty? Is this performed yearly or every couple years?

Thanks for your input!

Amanda

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Amanda Fleming

Serials Coordinator

afleming@linfield.edu

Linfield College

Jereld R. Nicholson Library

900 SE Baker St.

McMinnville OR 97128-6894

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

To unsubscribe from the SERIALST list, click the following link:
http://listserv.nasig.org/scripts/wa-NASIG.exe?SUBED1=SERIALST&A=1

Melissa Belvadi

Collections Librarian

University of Prince Edward Island

mbelvadi@upei.ca 902-566-0581

To unsubscribe from the SERIALST list, click the following link:
http://listserv.nasig.org/scripts/wa-NASIG.exe?SUBED1=SERIALST&A=1