UST libraries ask: Which resources should it cancel?

By Linda Hulbert
Associate Director for Collection Management and Services
O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library Center

The process of selecting information resources (electronic resources, books and journal subscriptions) for the scholarly needs of the UST community is based on collaboration between library staff, faculty and university administration. A number of factors are considered as we make decisions on purchases: available budget, costs of resources, economic trends in the publishing industry, the balance between print and electronic resources, use of materials and the allocation of resources to specific academic areas.

The libraries are grateful for an increase in university support for the coming year. As we consider the many possibilities that exist in information resources, we keep in mind several principles: our role as a library serving the curricular needs of a comprehensive institution; the shift in user demand from printed materials to electronic (i.e., we’ve seen a 50 percent drop in the use of our print journals in the last six years and a 176 percent increase in online use). This indicates that library resources are still being used, but increasingly those materials that are available electronically are the most popular.

We take our role as stewards of the university’s resources very seriously. In making our collection development decisions for the coming year, we have:

• Evaluated the use of all our journals
• Consulted with faculty in each discipline regarding their need for and use of journals
• Determined the full-text availability of journals, especially those to which we subscribe in print
• Minimized duplication between print and electronic resources
• Minimized duplication among the UST libraries
• Identified new resources that are appropriate and valuable for our community

We invite the campus community to review and comment on the recommendations we have for cancellations. We propose canceling 31 titles for which there will be no exact counterpart available on campus. Please, take a moment to examine the list to ensure that we have precisely identified the least used resources for the campus.

Contact Linda Hulbert, (651) 962-5016, by Friday, Sept. 14, with comments about titles on these lists, or with suggestions for resources that the libraries should be considering for purchase.