Message to Deans re Serials Cancellation Planning

This morning I sent a message to the Deans about our serials cancellation planning. This was intended to alert them that the academic liaisons would be working with their faculty and why. The bulk of the message minus the chart on the schedule (which can also be found in my presentation to the Senate) follows:

The University has been committed to providing financial resources to the Libraries to avoid loss of content in new books, journals, and electronic resources. Last year, they closed the gap in our funding with one time dollars and we avoided any major loss of content. Of course as each year proceeds the costs for these materials increase about 8% annually widening the gap between our base budget and the needed dollars to avoid cancelling titles. We continue to do all we can to control costs. We are continuing a rapid migration from a print plus electronic subscription model to an electronic only subscription model. Whenever possible, we are eliminating subscriptions to the print journals and retaining only electronic access; this provides some small savings. As an added factor, we also purchase many of these titles on the Young Endowment. As that principal declines, we anticipate that at some stage we will see decreased revenue from that source.

As the University continues to work its way through the budget allocation process for next year, we must plan for possible cancellations. The time frame for initiating cancellations, particularly for journal subscriptions, is long. Faculty consultation must occur in the next 6-7 weeks while the faculty are still on campus. Then the work to renew or cancel begins in early summer for subscriptions which are effective in January 2010.

To prepare for a number of possible scenarios, the librarians who work with your colleges and departments have been told to prepare cancellation plans for up to 15%. We certainly hope that cuts will not reach that level but we must be prepared to act quickly if needed. Once titles are renewed this summer for January 2010, we cannot achieve any savings on those titles until January 2011.

The following chart shows the timeline for our plans. Please share this message with appropriate leaders in your college.