Frequently Asked Questions
Changing Access from Print to Electronic
(see below for Budget Deficits and Cancellations)
- Won't this move to electronic only make us even more dependent on high-priced publishers?
Many of our faculty are members of editorial boards and contribute articles to high-priced journals. During promotion and tenure decisions, publication in some of these more prestigious journals is still most valued. Unless this changes, it is neither possible nor desirable for The Library to discontinue access to these publications.
It could be argued that publisher journal packages are creating monopolies in the information marketplace. The only way to change the system is for the academy to develop alternative, high-quality publishing forums. Alternative publishing venues are emerging and the Library community encourages scholars to aggressively pursue these alternatives. See Faculty Action / Support, New Models for Publishing, and Forthcoming Discussions for more information.
- If we buy hard copy, we have access to it forever. If we only have electronic, and an electronic publisher no longer exists, or we no longer subscribe, do we lose access?
This question brings up two issues. One is the issue of perpetual access and the other is the issue of archival access. Both issues are items addressed in each consortial agreement negotiated by CDL on behalf of the UC Libraries.
CDL typically negotiates our contracts so that if we do not renew subscriptions to particular titles, the UC's will continue to have perpetual access to the issues for which we already have paid. (e.g., If we subscribe to content published in 2003 but decide to cancel a contract in 2005, we will continue to have access to the 2003 content and all other content we have already paid for.)
CDL also arranges for archival access to titles using a variety of strategies, including
- Purchasing one archival print copy of each electronic title and housing it at the Southern Regional Library Facility (SRLF).
- Asking publishers to maintain an electronic archive of all subscribed content.
- Asking that if for some reason a publisher cannot maintain an electronic archive, that the publisher agree to transfer the electronic archive to a depository agreed to by an independent board of library advisors.
- If the Library cancels print, will the cost of an individual subscription increase?
Some journals are available to individual subscribers at a discounted rate if their institution has a subscription. We do not expect that policy to change. By canceling the print version of a journal, the Library is not canceling its subscription to that title. UC and UCB co-pay for full subscriptions to electronic titles.
- What can I do if I think it's really important to keep the print version of a specific title?
Contact the library liaison for your department. Library liaisons are reviewing titles and nominating ones that perhaps we should continue to carry locally in print. But every print title retained means another title, possibly in unique content, will be cancelled instead. When nominating possible exceptions, liaisons will consider several factors, including:
- The electronic version is substantially different from the print.
- There is high use of local print copies (e.g., print is regularly used for browsing, current awareness.
- It is a review journal that is heavily used by undergraduates.
- It has very high impact, demonstrated by existence of a large number of citations.
Budget Deficits and Cancellations
- How does the Library calculate deficits?
We are comparing permanent allocations against recurring costs, including base monograph allocations for each selector. See Budget Outlook.
- Do cuts happen because of the problems with the state budget and the cuts to higher education? Isn't the Collections budget protected?
Over the last several years, our chancellors have protected the collections budget against campus-wide cuts, while asking the Library to takes its share of cuts to our operations budgets.
No new funds, however, have been available to cover annual inflation. The need to reduce continuing commitments in collections is in large part a direct result of the gap between the rate of inflation and the funding available, particularly for scholarly journals in scientific, medical, and technical fields and in some areas of the social sciences, such as business.
Another contributing factor is the cost of new and renewed electronic resources. The costs of many reference resources far exceed the cost of inflation as it transitions from print to electronic format.
- Why can't the Library take money from salaries or equipment or other expenses to relieve the deficit in collections?
The collections budget and the operations budget must stay in some semblance of balance, or there are not enough staff to select, order, catalog, process, shelve, and help users to access new resources. The Library's operations budget has never been restored to pre-1995 levels.
- Can't we use endowment money to cover the deficit?
Endowments are generally restricted to specific uses and the Library spends them in accordance with the agreements. The Library's limited number of unrestricted endowments are regularly used to enable major acquisitions.
- Are cuts only in serials or are monographs cut as well?
Cuts are applied to both serials and monographs. But since the inflation rate on serials is higher than for monographs, and since more than half of the collections allocation is designated for serials, the cuts will be heavier in serials. As part of any cancellation project, each of the Library's continuing commitments is reviewed, including serials, continuations, electronic databases, reference sources, and newspapers. Since the ratio of serials to monographs varies greatly by discipline, and some fields cannot assume their cuts in serials alone, budget reductions are applied as a permanent reduction in the monograph base as well. Individual library liaisons make decisions, and targets are set that correspond to the ratio of monographs to serials.
- Are all the disciplines cut?
The cuts will be applied to all funds across the disciplines.
- How does the Library decide which journals to cancel?
Library liaisons consider a variety of criteria as they consult with faculty, students, and other users about the journals that are most critical to teaching, learning and research. Some factors that contribute to the decision include: cost; use, availability elsewhere; impact (as identified through citation analysis,) where it is indexed, and whether or not the Library already has it in another format (e.g., electronic.)
- What can an individual faculty member do to help the cost of journals?
There are many ways that scholars can help restructure scholarly publishing, as authors, as members of editorial boards, participants in peer review, and members of professional societies. A discussion of the issues is located at the web site entitled Create Change. See also Faculty Action/Support.
- Can faculty donate personal copies of their subscription to the Library?
The Library appreciates the offer, but in most cases, publishers have different pricing structures for individuals and institutions and the cost to individuals is typically much less. Publishers do not expect the personal copy to be used in a Library, and doing so may create a conflict.
In those rare cases in which it may be allowed, experience has shown it to be impractical. The Library uses a service to handle subscriptions and business transactions with hundreds of publishers for thousands of journals. Individual arrangements can be quite time-consuming and result in gaps or delays in receiving issues. Processing individual gift copies is staff intensive and simply not scalable.
The Library would be happy to accept gifts of individual issues to fill in gaps in existing Library subscriptions.
- Does UC Berkeley coordinate cancellations with other UC libraries?
Collections administrators from the ten UC campuses are engaged in ongoing planning and coordination regarding all matters of cooperative collection development, including the development of the shared print archive, and coordinating cancellation strategies.
- Do we have information about the use of individual titles in print?
Talk to your library liaison. Some of the science libraries and the Music Library collect usage information for print copies of periodicals on a regular basis.
- Do we have information about the use of individual titles online?
Vendors provide The Library with data for various categories of usage of the electronic versions of journals. We have made the information about journal usage available for several of the larger electronic journal packages.
You may also contact your library liaison.
- Whom should I contact for more information?
Every department and program in the university has a library liaison. In almost all cases, the liaison is also the person responsible for managing the collections budget for that discipline.
General questions may be addressed to Chuck Eckman, Director of Collections.
