During the 2015 Spring semester, the Library needs your engagement and advice as we undertake a serials review. Serials subscriptions typically increase in price from 8% – 12% annually, however we sometimes see increases as high as 100%. This serials review ensures that we are acquiring the best resources for your teaching and scholarship needs within the confines of our budget.
What is a Serials Review?
The purpose of this review is to retain the most critical resources for the Longwood community. It is also an opportunity to refine our subscriptions to better reflect current curricular needs. Our goal is to ensure we continue to support your areas of scholarship as well as add key new journals in important areas of research. Because the Greenwood Library collection is a living and growing collection, in order to stay relevant and current, we need to unsubscribe to some titles that were selected many years ago and are no longer relevant to your curricula or titles that have not lived up to expectations. We are not targeting a specific dollar amount of savings; rather, conducting a Serials Review periodically is considered a best practice among collections librarians and allows us to investigate new titles.
What can you do to help?
Members of the faculty can take a variety of actions that will contribute to the success of the serials review. These include:
- participating in a review of titles in your subject area(s) that relate directly to your teaching and research, and of titles of interdisciplinary interest;
- being flexible about accessing titles in different formats or about the need to acquire copies of some articles via interlibrary loan;
- considering personal practices regarding publication in scholarly journals and service on editorial boards, including becoming informed about journal pricing and inflation, and publisher policies regarding authors’ retention of copyright;.
- supporting efforts by professional associations and other bodies to establish alternative, less costly means of distributing scholarly information;
- learning more about issues related to scholarly communication within your discipline.
When will any cancellations go into effect?
Most of the cancellations will take effect in FY 2016-2017. This means that, in most instances, the Library’s subscriptions and standing orders for titles slated for cancellation will end with the 2015 volume.
How can I get access to a title I need if it has been cancelled?
Copies of journal articles may be obtained through the Library’s Interlibrary Loan (ILLiad) service that is offered to Longwood faculty, staff, and students. In most cases, articles are posted as PDFs on a server within the ILLiad system. Requests may be submitted online via the Interlibrary Loan link on the Library’s Homepage or from the FindIt! Buttons found in online databases.
What is on the Spreadsheet?
There are master alphabetical lists at the start of the spreadsheet for journals, and standing orders. The tabs after these include titles by departmental fund codes. You will notice that some of the prices are zeroed out. There are a few reasons for the “zero” amounts. Some are memberships or part of a bundle of titles and the total cost is listed elsewhere; some are part of our VIVA (The Virtual Library of Virginia) collection, which cannot be dropped.
Serials List for Review
(This file will download.)
How will the Library conduct the serials review?
Your input is needed by April 30, 2015. Please take a moment to review the titles in your areas of expertise and make a note of any we should retain, as well as those you feel we could drop, we would truly appreciate your help.
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact Tammy Hines, Head of Collections and Information Services, or Blaze Pappas, Collections Manager.