Cancelled and New Journals - 2001

In early August the Library sent a list of proposed 251 journal cancellations to the Library Advisory Committee, the Academic Computing Advisory Committee, the deans of the Colleges, and the department chairs in the College of Medicine. The total cost for these journals was about $176,000 in 2000. Our goal was to reduce the journal budget by a minimum of $165,000 for 2001.

We appreciate your thoughtful responses to our proposed journal cancellations. After considering all of your requests, we have removed a number of journals from our list. The remaining 215 journals to be cancelled are listed in a spreadsheet available for download *. The 21 new journals for 2001 are listed on the UAMS Library web site. The journal titles that will be kept in electronic access only are also available on the UAMS Library web site. This was a difficult process and one that we will continue to face if journal costs continue to increase and the number of journals published continues to climb.

Journal Cancellations for 2001

New Subscriptions

* available in Microsoft Excel 97 format (54KB)

Factors Considered for Cancellations and New Subscriptions
The decision of whether or not to cancel a subscription was generally based on the cost per use of the journal. Our guideline has been that if the use does not justify the cost of the subscription, then we will borrow or purchase the articles as needed rather than subscribe. Some journals were borderline and if several faculty supported keeping the journal, then we decided to keep it. There were a few cases where faculty made a case that a program was in the initial stages and needed a year or two to get established. There were cases in which a journal represented the key journal for a discipline. If the cost was not too out of line, we kept those titles.

The list of 21 new titles resulted from the study of the 1998-June 2000 interlibrary loan statistics and a few titles that were recommended by faculty. We applied similar factors in selecting the new titles. When the cost of obtaining the articles on interlibrary loans approached the cost of the subscription, then it made sense for us to subscribe. Unfortunately we had several recommendations for new journals that we were unable to purchase this year because of the high subscription cost.

Interlibrary Loans
Since we are depending more and more upon interlibrary loans for articles from expensive and little used journals, we are very aware of the importance of making interlibrary loans as quick and efficient as possible. The Library is moving money from our book budget to subsidize the purchase of articles on interlibrary loan. We are also streamlining our interlibrary loan processes so that delivery is more timely.

Again thanks for your help with this project. If you have questions, please contact Mary Hawks, phone: 686-6749, email HawksMaryS@exchange.uams.edu.