Last updated: 11/12/08
Serials Cancellations FY 2009 Effective January 1, 2009

During FY09, all academic units of the University were required to make deep cuts due to decreased funding of the University by the State. The University Libraries were asked to cut 11.5% of their budget, or $801,000. During a period of a few months, the Libraries also lost one quarter of their staff as the result of retirement incentives.

To meet the budget reduction, library materials needed to be canceled. Not only did the budget shortfall leave little money for materials, but Library Journal, in their annual Periodicals Price Survey, predicted that, "Given the continuing slide of the dollar, expect [serials] increases in 2009 to approach ten percent overall." (Library Journal, 4/15/08, pp. 53-58). Since the University of Rhode Island Libraries spent over $2.5M on serials in FY08, a 10% inflation rate means that price increases alone will total close to $250,000 in FY09.

In consultation with his management team, Dean of Libraries David Maslyn identified a target reduction in serials expenditures of $400,000. He also decided that cancellations should primarily target print journals, because they are used less than online journals, and that at this time, reference databases and electronic journal packages would not be targeted for cuts.

Since electronic journal packages and databases (which cost $1,457,052.23 in FY08) were excluded from cancellation, the $400,000 reduction had to be spread across the remainder of our serials funds ($1,095,458.62), which resulted in a target reduction amount of 36.5% for each of those funds.

Library subject selectors worked with their departments to identify the titles to be cancelled. In some cases, the damage was mitigated by online access to impacted titles through reference databases. The subscriptions that were canceled provided access to the current issues of the journals. In a number of cases, access to content from prior years is still available through databases such as JSTOR or Academic Search Premier. For online access availability, consult the Library’s A-Z List of Electronic Journals.

If you would like more information please contact the subject selector responsible for your department or college.

The final cut resulted in the elimination of 908 titles costing $427,175. The list of titles cut (below) and a statistical summary are available for download in Microsoft Excel format.

Serials Cut 2009