Western Libraries to reduce journal and database subscriptions

Western Washington University is preparing for reductions in expenditures of $315,000 to its 2016-17 fiscal year budget for library resource access.

An initial list of approximately 3,600 current subscriptions proposed for cancelation is available for review. The list and accompanying documents can be found on the Western Libraries’ website.

Western faces continued and significant budget shortfalls to pay for current library resources. The anticipated deficits are primarily the result of escalating journal and database prices, compounded at an average of 6 percent annually.

In this context, the Division of Academic Affairs and the Faculty Senate engaged the Senate Library Committee to seek solutions. In fall quarter 2015, the committee convened the Sustainable Access Task Force and prepared a report to determine principles, criteria, and processes for reducing expenditures on library resources.

Subscriptions Cancellation Process

Western Libraries has applied the task force's criteria and formula to produce a list of titles for cancelation. The task force's charge, its report and the spreadsheet of titles for proposed cancelation are available in the sidebar of this page.

The report permits an academic department to request that a title on the proposed cancelation list be considered for retention based upon defensible criteria as described in the report's fourth general principle.

Department chairs should coordinate all requests within the department and submit a single, department-approved list of titles, with justifications, to Mike Olson, director of Scholarly Resources and Collections Services (mike.olson@wwu.edu), no later than 5 p.m. Friday, April 29. Retention requests submitted after that date will not be considered. Western Libraries is not able to consider requests from individual faculty.

After April 29, Western Libraries faculty will meet to review all department retention requests. In the event that total retention requests exceed the 15-percent buffer described in the task force's cancelation formula, Western Libraries faculty will collectively analyze and prioritize the retention requests based upon the defensible criteria submitted by each department chair.

Western Libraries will publish on its website a final list of cancelations and a description of the process and criteria the faculty used in prioritizing the department retention requests by 5 p.m. Friday, May 20. Cancelations will take effect in the 2017 calendar year.

For more information, contact Mike Olson, director of Scholarly Resources and Collection Services at Western Libraries, at mike.olson@wwu.edu.