Colleagues,
Welcome back and to the start of a new academic year. As you may recall from my note in May, like the rest of the campus community, the University Libraries is making provisions for a potential budget shortfall in the University’s budget this year. At that time, we had identified a list of titles for consideration for cancellation during the summer. Accompanying this letter is an updated list of those “early cancellation decision” titles – those that were cancelled and those that were spared. The larger list, what we are calling the fall cancellation list, comprises titles that we are still holding for cancellation depending on the severity of any reduction.
As I had indicated in May, this is our plan for reaching any necessary budget cuts:
- Hold our book budget flat in FY2018-2019. Book prices general inflate about 3.5% annually: this lowers our purchasing power in books, but also spares books the worst of the cut. This is important because our book budget has been cut disproportionately over the past years.
- Cut high cost/low use electronic and print periodicals, specifically titles for which our cost per use was over $75.
- In addition to cutting high cost-per-use titles, apply a cut across subject funds based on each fund’s share of the total print periodical and electronic resources budget.
Our subject librarians have carefully reviewed collections to identify titles to cancel that will be least disruptive to our ability to support research, scholarship, teaching and learning. The result is the fall cancellation list I have posted here for your review:
Library Potential Cancellation List, Fall 2018
Once we know the magnitude of any cuts, we plan to hold open meetings (SEE UPDATE BELOW) to discuss so look for more information, likely towards the end of September. In the meanwhile, we encourage you to review the fall cancellation list and if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact myself, Jill Dixon (jdixon@binghamton.edu), associate university librarian for public services & collections, or Jim Galbraith (jgalbrai@binghamton.edu), head of collection development.
Thank you for your understanding and your continued support of the University Libraries.
Sincerely,
Curtis Kendrick, Dean of Libraries
UPDATE – OPEN MEETINGS SCHEDULED TO DISCUSS CANCELLATIONS:
- 4:30-5:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 11
- 9-10 a.m., Friday, Oct. 12
- 3-4 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 17
All of the meetings will be held in the Zurack Collaboration Center, Newcomb Reading Room – Bartle Library.