Academic Library Budget Cuts – Are Serials Always First Resort?

While I agree with the sentiment that appeared in library committee minutes at our sister institution -

that is, if the choice is between periodicals and staff, obviously the staff need to be preserved -

I’m beginning to wonder, are serials always the first to be cut from academic library budgets during difficult times?

The academic library where I work is cutting

-staff positions (currently and hopefully only through attrition)

-computer footprint (college-wide cut of 11% of machines)

-some electronic resources (based on usage statistics and cost)

-all print journals that can be subscribed to in online format

-some memberships through which we receive serial publications

-almost all journal and monograph binding

-and they’re investigating moving some of our online journal subscriptions to a pay-per-view model

A moderate reduction to the book acquisitions budget will also be made.

You’ll begin to notice that the sub-department of serials (2 FTE), while we’ll likely be keeping our jobs, will bear the brunt of the cut in materials budgets.

So, we’ll have our jobs (I hope), but what exactly will we be doing when our job responsibilities are so reduced?

Is this similar to what’s happening at other libraries?

Decentralized Serials Administration

While I’ve already posted about journals check-in, I’m wondering how other library systems with multiple library sites manage serials in general.

I work in the ‘central’ branch at a college where there are two additional branch libraries.  A few years ago the decision was made to decentralize much of the serials administration, such that subscriptions, renewals, binding, and cataloging continued to be administered by the ‘central’ library staff, but check-in was managed by the branch libraries for titles which were shelved there.

This decentralized serials administration model poses problems for claiming missing issues, updating the cataloging for title changes and mergers (etc.), updating the frequency of the publication, and collecting journal issues for binding – all among the other exciting things that the world of serials throws our way.

These problems may all become non-issues as we move progressively towards an electronic-only serials collection, but in the meantime, it is a collection management mire.

Do you work with serials in a multi-site library system?  How does your library system handle serials administration?

The Great Cancellation Begins

Today we’ve started work on The Great Cancellation, scheduled for the 2009-2010 renewal period.

What I know is that our Collections Heads have expressed the desire to cancel any print subscriptions that we can replace with electronic equivalents, and maintain only those print subscriptions that are truly unique and not yet digitized.

What the little birdies tell me is that the powers that be would like to empty the Periodical Room and convert it into a gallery space.

Regardless, we started today by data massaging the content of a report provided by our vendor which details our current subscription formats and whether these titles are available as online-only subscriptions.  The final report will be subject to cost-benefit analysis and will determine which titles we move to online only subscriptions, and which, if any, we maintain in print.

Has your library moved towards electronic only serials holdings, or have there been discussions of this transition?  Will the decision be made purely on a cost-basis, or will you consider other factors in the decision-making process?