2008 Woodie Awards
Dimond Library budget creates journal cancellations
Betsy Rose
Issue date: 3/28/05 Section: News
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The reason for the cancellations of journals is simple. It is because of inflation, according to Judith Brink, head of collection development at the Dimond Library. Brink said that the journal market is under stress because they are trying to provide information electronically as well as by print.
The inflation of the price of journals domestically has been 10 percent while the foreign inflation of journals has been 15 percent. The average equaling 11 percent inflation in journals, said Claudia J. Morner, Ph.D., the University librarian of the Dimond Library. The problem begins with the fact that the library budget for fiscal year 2004 (a fiscal year begins July 1and ends June 30) was $14,137,246 million while the budget for fiscal year 2005 is $14,618,696 million, which creates an increase of three percent. This means that the journals are inflating faster than the libraries budget, according to Morner.
About $3.2 million out of about $5.1 million for use on all the collections such as books, Compact Discs, etc., was spent this fiscal year, Morner said. The rest of the budget goes for things like salaries, fringe benefits and almost more than four million dollars pays to keep up the facility, she said.
The way that this problem is to be handled is "to look at the collection and to see if it is meeting the needs of the students and the faculty," Morner said.
UNH is not the only school going through this. Most schools have been cutting journals, Morner said.
"There isn't a library in this area or country that hasn't done it or is going to," Brink said. She also said that a lot more information is being published and areas are breaking off, creating more information.
The canceling of the journals will be a three-year process, Morner said. This year they are only doing part of the collection, and after three years, will have done all the departments. The plan is to review every program in every department then get program reviews from the departments themselves, as well as experts, then look at the collections and evaluate them based on the information they have received according to Morner.
