Serials Review Project FAQs

What is a Serial?

Serials include journals, magazines, newsletters, directories, indexes, statistical series, and monographic series, in all formats (paper, electronic, CD-ROM, diskette, fiche and others). They are subscribed to on an ongoing basis.

How will individual serials be evaluated?

The evaluation of serials will involve a combination of quantitative, qualitative and cost measures. All cancellation decisions will be made after consulting with faculty.

Can I appeal a decision to cancel a journal?

Yes. If you see a title on the proposed list that you believe should not be cancelled, please send us a feedback and explain the importance of the title to your work.

Will the library also spend less on books?

Yes. While book purchases represent a small percent of our total acquisitions budget, we will be spending less on books in order to lessen the effect of a weak budget on our journal subscriptions.

Why is the library focusing on cancelling serials?

Mann Library spends approximately 85% of acquisitions funds on serials. Serials costs have been increasing between 8%-12% per year, exceeded the cost of living and far exceeding library budgets in general. In comparison, books have been increasing at approximately 2-3% per year. To prevent serials from consuming the entire acquisitions budget, we must look at cutting back on some of the serials we purchase.

Will the evaluation be a multi-year process?

Very likely. While we are all unsure of the New York State budget, it is likely that budget reductions will continue for several years. Your assistance in helping us make the best possible use of our budget will be invaluable during these years.

Can the library save money if it purchases only online journals?

It depends. The subscription model differs from publisher to publisher. With some publishers, online access comes "free" with a print subscription. Other publishers provide a small savings for online-only access. In making the decision to purchase online-only information, the library needs to evaluate whether it should keep receiving print as an archive for future generations of researchers. Currently, there is no reliable electronic archiving model. In addition, some of the publishers only "lease" their information to us, which means that if we cancel our subscription, we are left with no access (even to the years to which we subscribed!) Going online-only is a very serious decision that needs to be made publisher-by-publisher, and often title-by-title.

What is the cause of the serials crisis?

For many years, increases in the prices of library materials in all formats (including more recently electronic) have generally exceeded -sometimes significantly, increases in library acquisitions budgets. Libraries have worked hard to minimize the effects of this imbalance, but we are now reaching a point at which many institutions, including Cornell, are for this reason no longer able to provide access to some materials needed for instruction and research. To read more on the issues and suggestions on what you can do, please visit the site Cornell University Library Issues in Scholarly Communication.

Can I donate a personal journal copy to the library?

The Library appreciates the offer, but in most cases, publishers have different pricing structures for individuals and institutions and the cost to individuals is typically much less. Publishers do not expect the personal copy to be used in a Library, and doing so may violate a subscription agreement. In addition, arrangements for using personal copies may result in significant delays, gaps in coverage, and other problems for library patrons.

How can I get access to titles once they have been cancelled?

Articles and other documents that are required but no longer subscribed to at Cornell will still be available through Interlibrary Loan. This service is free to members of the Cornell community. In most cases, articles will be delivered directly to your desktop.

Why are there two cancellation lists for 2004?

The Mann Library journal cancellation is part of a larger collection evaluation project that will span several years. Because of the size of our collection, publisher contract dates, and limited specific knowledge of our budget, we have divided the work into several smaller and manageable subsets. Our faculty library board also advised us that it was better to send a preliminary list before faculty left for the summer, and a second list in early fall. This staggering has allowed us to put more attention on each title and to proceed as carefully as possible.

What is the dollar amount of the cancellation?

In 2002/03, our total serials expenditure was approximately 1.65 million dollars. While our current budget is still unknown, assuming that serials expenditures continue to increase at 8%, we will have to cut $130,000 in expenditures in the first year if our acquisitions budget is flat (0% increase). With a 5% decrease, we will need to cut approximately $213,000 in the first year, and $271,000 by the third year. This graph from the Association of Research Libraries describes serial and book inflation over the last two decades.

How will Mann Library balance its budget?

In recent years, the library has successfully balanced its budget by planning ahead and eliminating duplication whenever possible. Because of the proposed severity of this year's budget, outright cancellations will have to be made beginning in 2004. There is no single and effective solution to how library resources will be cut. It will involve:

• Reducing remaining duplicate subscriptions across Cornell libraries
• Reducing expenditures on books and other non-serials
• Migrating from print plus online subscriptions, to online-only
• Reducing the number of simultaneous users for bibliographic databases
• Canceling unique titles

The library will work closely with our college's faculty to ensure that responsible decisions are made that reflect the needs of our community.

What are the guiding principles behind the serials evaluation?

The library represents a shared and public resource for our communities. In making serial decisions, our guiding principles are:

• To develop and sustain the best possible collection with funding available to support research, teaching and extension.
• To maintain balance among subject areas, intellectual levels, audience groups, etc.
• To sustain a balance between monograph and serial purchases.
• To retain the financial flexibility to purchase important new resources when the opportunity arises.
• To work closely with faculty in serials cancellation decisions.