![[logo] Crest of the University of Wisconsin-Madison](/images/crest.png)
![[logo] Ask a Librarian](/images/ask.png)
« Back to All News Releases
Budget Letter from UW-Madison Library Director Ken Frazier
November 11, 2010
Dear Faculty, Students and Staff,
During the past few weeks I have met with University administrators, governance committees, and groups of faculty to deliver unwelcome news: in this fiscal year the budget allocations for collections in many disciplines will go down significantly. This is happening even though the overall library budget for acquisitions has declined only modestly. I am writing to explain the library budget situation and to ask for your help in managing library resources for collections wisely.
Most (more than 50%) of the library’s total budget for collections is spent to buy electronic journals and databases. Books and other printed materials remain vital for some types of information, but by far the most intensive usage of library collections takes place online. Usage of the library system’s print collections has declined over the past decade and annual external circulation of library materials accounts for only 600,000 check-outs. By contrast, usage of digital library collections is conservatively estimated at 20 million sessions and/or document downloads.
Many journals for subject disciplines are purchased centrally by the General Library System as a part of large bundled contracts with major publishers like Elsevier, Wiley-Blackwell, Nature Publishing Group and the American Chemical Society. These contracts offer relatively advantageous terms and are negotiated aggressively—sometimes through cooperative purchasing by the CIC library consortium or UW System and sometimes by UW-Madison. While these bundled contracts can greatly reduce the cost-per-use for journal articles, the inevitable consequence of big, multi-year contracts is that these “Big Deals” must get paid. In times when the overall budget is flat, this means that there is less money available for buying everything else.
Journal publishers increase their prices annually in both good times and bad. The major publishers would have us believe that they are doing a favor by capping their price increase for journals and databases at, say, 5%--which is, by the way, the lowest increase in the past decade. These relentless price increases compound the need to reduce our expenditures in individual subject lines.
Cancellations are always the most difficult decisions that librarians make. Our subject specialists are aware of the long-term consequences of this and take their responsibility most seriously. As part of this process librarians consult with the user community as well as examine usage data to make informed decisions.
Nearly 700 serial titles will be cancelled for 2011. The list of titles is available at: http://www.library.wisc.edu/collections/cancelled.html We realize that many of these journals have long been regarded as important, if not indispensable, for teaching or research. However, whenever possible, we will continue to meet your needs through alternative services such as document delivery and interlibrary loan.
Feel free to share with me, Richard Reeb (rreeb@library.wisc.edu), Associate Director for Collection Development, or your library liaison questions and concerns you may have about how we can best meet your research needs in the context of today’s—and tomorrow’s—budget constraints. Your thoughts, comments, and suggestions are of great interest.
Sincerely,
Ken Frazier
Director
