Cal Poly

December 2008 Budget Developments

December 15, 2008 -- In 2008 the cost of scholarly journals and databases increased 8% at undergraduate universities (See: Five Year Journal Price Increase History, 2004-2008, EBSCO). Inflation for science and engineering-intensive collections such as those needed at Cal Poly can run even higher. The impact of inflation on the Kennedy Library's collections is further detailed at pages 6 – 8 in the 2007 Provost Report on the Future of the Library (PDF).

The Kennedy Library maximizes the use of consortial discounts for information resources negotiated in collaboration with CSU partner libraries and the Chancellor's Office. Despite these savings, inflation continues to erode the Library’s purchasing power.

Without annual budget increases to offset these rising costs, the Kennedy Library regularly reviews and adjusts the number of journals and titles to which it subscribes. This year’s budget reductions have exacerbated the impact of annual inflation, creating even larger deficits.

To address these deficits, the Kennedy Library has taken steps to further reduce spending on its collections. In doing this we have followed these principles:

• Eliminate duplicate formats wherever possible (e.g. canceling print and microform editions of journals that are available electronically);
• Protect the library’s book budget, keeping spending for books at levels based on average expenditures in the last three years.
• Cancel electronic databases with substantial content overlap or where alternative access to information is available in another product.
• Maintain access to heavily used resources, particularly in growth areas of teaching and research.
• Use a small portion of savings to add access to critical new resources.
• Using modest accrued savings to defer additional cuts until further communication and analysis of costs and benefits have taken place.

By following these principles we have achieved significant savings in FY09. View a list of the products recently canceled.

Due to continuing inflation in the cost of journals and databases, and the size of the budget cuts, we anticipate we will need to make substantial additional cuts to our collections in FY10.

College librarians will be seeking input from faculty in their Colleges in spring 2009 about journals and databases being considered for future cancellation. College faculty input will be essential to help library faculty make the best possible decisions under these difficult circumstances.

For more information, please contact Anna K. Gold, University Librarian.

FY09 Journal Cancellations

A list of canceled journals (PDF) is available for review. For most of these titles, the effective cancellation date is January 1, 2009. For some titles we will continue to have access to older issues ("retaining embargoed access") but we will not have access to current issues. In all cases, journal articles or serial issues we no longer have access to may be requested through interlibrary loan services.

FY09 Database Cancellations

The following databases have been identified for cancellation in FY09. Exact dates the cancellations become effective will vary.

Title	Publisher	Alternative sources	Access ends
AccessUN	Readex	Open web; UN web site	12/31/08
Applied Science & Technology Abstracts	OCLC	Compendex	11/1/08
Associations Unlimited	GaleGroup	Open web; Wikipedia	11/1/08
Biology and Agriculture Index	OCLC	Agricola	11/1/08
Books-in-Print	OCLC	Amazon; WorldCat	11/1/08
Contemporary Authors	GaleGroup	Literature Resource Center offers same content.	11/1/08
General Science Abstracts	OCLC	Academic Search Elite	11/1/08
Kraus Curriculum Development Library (KCDL online)	Kraus	N/A; consult College Librarian for Education	11/1/08
Newspapers in microform	Proquest	Newspaper archives online	12/31/08
Scientific American Archive Online	Scientific American	Print archive available at Kennedy Library	12/31/08
Ulrich's Online	ProQuest	JournalSeek, JCR	12/31/08
Westlaw	West	Lexis-Nexis	12/31/08