The WSU Libraries have had to cancel a substantial number of journal titles in recent years. Some titles were cancelled outright. Others are now only available electronically. During this time, the library materials budget has been flat; we have not received increases to cover inflation in books or journals. Journal inflation, including access to abstracting and indexing services, is running between 5% and 10% annually. We now have this years budget figures, and again there is no money to keep offering the access we currently have. We are going to have to cancel somewhere around $600,000 of journals, approximately 15% of our remaining subscriptions.
Each year the cancellation task becomes more difficult as we have to eliminate truly important journals from the WSU research collections. We have realized what savings we can from switching to electronic format, consortial deals, past one-time funding, and carryforward from previous cancellations. We have of course made the case to the Administration that for WSU to be a world-class institution we need to offer world-class access to information, but as you know all too well the money isnt there.
Since the journal renewals for 2008 must be decided by September 1, we have a very short time to make the hard decisions about which titles to do without. We have been working hard to incorporate information about cost, value, and use patterns into our analysis tools, and welcome your input. Please contact your department liaison librarian, Head of Collections and Acquisitions Diane Carroll (carroldi@wsu.edu) or me with your comments on specific titles, and your chairs and deans if you wish to express support for increasing University support for journal and book collections.
For a list of the proposed titles, go to