Re: Seven ARL Libraries Face Major Planned or Potential Budget Cuts

[Chris Beckett <chris@cbathome.demon.co.uk>]

Its is interesting that the RLIN study cited in the RUP editorial 
showed that:

"Far more importantly, these big deals give university 
researchers access to unprecedented numbers of titles. And the 
evidence shows that they are making good use of this: studies for 
JISC and others have shown heavy use of journals to which 
libraries did not formerly subscribe. A recent study for the 
Research Information Network found that articles from 99% of the 
titles available in a range of university libraries were 
downloaded over a four-month period."

While at the same time the evidence cited in the editorial from 
the Rockefeller University Library showed that:

"For one of the bundles, the top 10% of journals garner over 85% 
of the hits to the bundle from users at the University. Over 40% 
of the journals in the bundle had no hits at all from the 
University in 2008!"

It would be interesting to understand how these two contrasting 
positions can be reconciled.

Also I would be interested to know [from the librarians on this 
list by direct email to me please] which publishers refuse to 
sell individual subscriptions to libraries.

Many Thanks

Chris Beckett
chris@cbathome.demon.co.uk

On 1 May 2009, at 00:43, Mike Rossner wrote:

> With regard to the library funding crisis, an editorial was 
> published on Monday in the three journals of the Rockefeller 
> University Press to inform research scientists about this major 
> problem facing their libraries.  Although librarians have been 
> aware of the problem for years, I think it is important for 
> their constituents to be alerted.
>
> Title: A challenge to Goliath
>
> Abstract: Megapublishers obligate librarians to buy hundreds of 
> journals they do not need in order to access the journals their 
> constituents actually read. The time has come to challenge this 
> business model, which is unsustainable for the libraries.
>
> Full text:
>
> http://jcb.rupress.org/cgi/content/full/jcb.200904082v1
> or
> http://jem.rupress.org/cgi/content/full/jem.20090836
> or
> http://jgp.rupress.org/cgi/content/full/jgp.200910248v1
>
> Mike Rossner
> Rockefeller University Press
>
>
> At 07:49 PM 4/29/2009, you wrote:
>> Seven ARL libraries are facing major planned or potential budget
>> cuts: Cornell University Library, Emory University Libraries, MIT
>> Libraries, UCLA Libraries, University of Tennessee Libraries,
>> University of Washington Libraries, and Yale University Library.
>> These examples suggest that significant budget cuts may be
>> widespread in ARL libraries.
>>
>> http://tinyurl.com/chgumq
>>
>> Best Regards,
>>
>> Charles W. Bailey, Jr.