Libraries FY2010 Serial Review Extended Through June 18
The rising prices of scholarly materials have made it difficult for libraries and universities worldwide to provide needed resources for their faculty and students. Since FY2008, the UMass Amherst campus has struggled to maintain level funding of the library materials acquisitions budget. Annual inflation on the cost of books, journals, and electronic resources averages between 5-8%. The library loses $300,000 annually in purchasing power due to the impact of inflation. By FY2011, inflation will have reduced the materials budget by more than 15% in the past three years.
We have made up for this inflationary budget reduction by limiting the allocation for print books we purchase. That allocation dropped from $1 million in FY2008 to less than $500,000 in FY2010. Absent a significant budget increase in FY2011, we will need to reduce the amount the Libraries spend on journals, e-resources, and materials we purchase on a recurring basis by $900,000.
In March 2010, we contacted UMass Amherst faculty members, proposing to cancel journals that cost $50 or more per use. The rationale for this recommendation: $50 is the standard cost to fill a journal article through Interlibrary Loan.
The journals we proposed to cancel in March represent a $251,776 cut. To reach the needed $900,000 budget cut, we again seek your assistance. Please review the additional list of journals and other serials below. There are two worksheets in this list. The first includes title sorted by academic department. The second includes the same information sorted by title.
The Libraries propose to cancel all of the titles on the attached review list. If there are core titles important to your discipline that should not be cancelled, please direct your comments to your Library liaison (http://www.library.umass.edu/reference/liaisons.html) or Leslie Button, Associate Director for Library Services, by Friday, June 18, 2010.
The Libraries remain committed to owning, within our budgetary constraints, information resources most needed by faculty and students. We will make every attempt to provide timely access to lesser used resources that are vital to the teaching and research mission of the campus. Any decisions can be reversed with the appropriate demonstration of need for information resources.
We look forward to working with you.
Jay Schafer
Director of Libraries
UMass Amherst
(413) 545-0284
Last Edited: 10 May 2010
