The Middlebury College Library, through the Serials Review Task Force (SRTF), is initiating the following review process for College serials subscriptions. The chief purpose of the FY07 review is to take stock of what we receive and, with faculty, to determine that our subscriptions meet the curricular and research needs of the community. In particular, we also plan to:
- identify the availability of electronic access for current print subscriptions and migrate in due course
- identify relevant open access journals and create standard access to them
- identify titles “core” or central to general study or interest and move them off of department lists and on to one defined for these purposes
- identify titles “core” or central to study of a particular discipline or subject area, determine how many we own, and notes omissions for future consideration
- examine different ways to fill new serials requests.
While we are fortunate to conduct this review without a mandate to reduce serials expenditures by a fixed amount—uncommon in the field to date—we are aware that annual increases in journal prices, about 8.5%, eventually will restrict significantly our ability to purchase new information resources in all formats. We hope to avoid much of this impingement by informing these periodic reviews with better journal usage statistics and more pertinent information on curricular initiatives.
The Library will review all individual subscriptions, that is, ones not part of an aggregated journal package. Because the Library still employs a one-for-one method of adding new journals, in which a title of comparable cost is cancelled to make room for a new subscription, the review largely will entail asking faculty to examine lists of journals “charged” to their departments to determine which subscriptions should be maintained and which might be swapped or cancelled.
Links:
Faculty/Department Involvement
Liaison Responsibilities
Serials Review Task Force (SRTF) Responsibilities
Timeline
FAQ for Liaisons