Ordering a journal subscription for the library

Serial/Journal subscriptions are ongoing budgetary commitments, including committing the library to an on-average 10% inflation rate per year. Consequently, new subscriptions must be justified (i.e., serve an unmet curricular need), and also must include the identification of funds to support the subscription. This is accomplished by identifying a title or titles of approximately similar cost to be discontinued. Because subscriptions are “assigned” to the various Departments, any individual faculty member who wishes to initiate a new subscription must coordinate this request within his/her department by first contacting his/her assigned Department Faculty Liaison. The Department Liaison will then coordinate the review of the journal title list within his/her department to ascertain if the department wishes to begin the new subscription, and, if so, which title(s) will be canceled in order to fund it.

• Each spring the Collection Development Librarian will, upon request, provide a list of serial/journal titles assigned to each College/School (and in the case of the College of Arts & Sciences, each Department). This list will be provided to either the Department Chair or the Departmental Library Liaison.
• Ideally, each College/School/Department will review the list for potential changes in regard to changing curricular needs, etc.
• Either the Department Chair or the Departmental Library Liaison will notify the Collection Development Librarian of any changes to be made in the list by the end of the spring semester.
• Serial/journal renewals are processed during the summer and are due to the serials vendor in late summer (note: these renewals/cancellations/additions take effect during the next calendar year. For example: renewals/cancellations/additions submitted to the Collection Development Librarian in May 2008, would take effect on January 1, 2009).
• When the Collection Development Librarian provides the title list for review, he/she will also notify the Department Chair and/or the Departmental Library Liaison of the “bottom line” figure to be achieved. Generally speaking, this will be a “break even” figure. Generally, if a subscription is added, a subscription of equal or greater cost must be discontinued.
• For those years in which the library does not receive funding adequate to maintain the current level of serials expenditures (given the annual 10% inflation rate), the Collection Development Librarian will, as soon as the budget information is made available to her/him, notify the Department Chair and the Departmental Library Liaison of the need to cancel subscriptions. The serial/journal lists will be provided (according to the procedures outlined above) to accomplish this goal. If the Department does not respond with a list of titles to discontinue within the target figure, the Library Faculty will make the decision about which titles to discontinue.