Abstract

During the 2014 fiscal year, the St. Mary’s College of Maryland Library faced a temporary budget reduction, and library administration anticipated much larger and permanent cuts in the coming fiscal years. This budget reduction prompted a need to critically evaluate the library’s journal subscriptions and as a consequence, the author developed a new collaborative review process. In this new process, librarians leveraged usage statistics, collection development experience and the subject expertise of faculty to make more informed collection development decisions. Although many libraries have involved faculty in journal cancellation projects, the St. Mary’s College of Maryland librarians took a proactive approach by implementing a unique collaborative review process before experiencing their severest budget cuts. By starting conversations with faculty early, the librarians were able to make evidence‐based collection development decisions that emphasized usage statistics, increased transparency, and built faculty trust. Librarians used a variety of methods to facilitate faculty‐librarian collaboration, the most important of which was the sharing of usage statistics with academic departments. This presentation explored the strategies implemented by the St. Mary’s College of Maryland Library to increase transparency and encourage faculty involvement in journal renewal decision making.

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Share Those Stats! Collaborating With Faculty to Make Evidence‐Based Serials Collection Development Decisions

During the 2014 fiscal year, the St. Mary’s College of Maryland Library faced a temporary budget reduction, and library administration anticipated much larger and permanent cuts in the coming fiscal years. This budget reduction prompted a need to critically evaluate the library’s journal subscriptions and as a consequence, the author developed a new collaborative review process. In this new process, librarians leveraged usage statistics, collection development experience and the subject expertise of faculty to make more informed collection development decisions. Although many libraries have involved faculty in journal cancellation projects, the St. Mary’s College of Maryland librarians took a proactive approach by implementing a unique collaborative review process before experiencing their severest budget cuts. By starting conversations with faculty early, the librarians were able to make evidence‐based collection development decisions that emphasized usage statistics, increased transparency, and built faculty trust. Librarians used a variety of methods to facilitate faculty‐librarian collaboration, the most important of which was the sharing of usage statistics with academic departments. This presentation explored the strategies implemented by the St. Mary’s College of Maryland Library to increase transparency and encourage faculty involvement in journal renewal decision making.