Following on from discussions at IRWG, just to provide a heads up about the following draft communication which will go out to LLOs and Library Committee this week. We are just waiting for a trial of Newsbank to be set up which we’ll provide details of as part of the review of newspaper subscriptions. Happy to answer any questions you may have – thanks Tim Stedman
Kia ora Library Liaison Officers and Subject Librarians,
Feedback due by 31st July to acquisitions@libr.canterbury.ac.nz
As is our usual practice, the Library reviews its continuing resources (subscriptions) to check whether any are no longer required. This year we are focussing on:
- database subscriptions where we would like to better understand the value for current University research and teaching
- individual journal subscriptions considered for cancellation in 2017, renewed for 2018 but flagged again for review in 2018
Databases we are reviewing are:
- Databases that support Economics, Finance and Accounting (CRSP, Datastream, SIRCA, SNL, ORBIS, Euromonitor, New Zealand time series database). We are currently consulting with the departments involved concerning these
- News and Newspaper databases including Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre, Factiva and PressReader
[To be inserted: details of trial of Newsbank….] - The Informit suite of databases (Families and Society collection, Health collection, Humanities and Social Sciences collection, New Zealand collection)
- The Safari technical and business eBooks – we expect an increase of over 300% in the subscription cost as the vendor is shutting down the old platform and transitioning subscribers to a new unlimited access platform
- LegalTrac – we are expecting a price increase of around 75% for 2019. Conversations with the vendor are continuing.
Why are we reviewing these databases?
In the cases of 1) through 4), there is a degree of overlap with other resources which means we are paying for some of the content twice. Cancelling content no longer needed or available in other sources helps the Library manage anticipated budget constraints and fund new subscriptions to meet new and changing needs in the University. In the case of 5) we would like to ask the question of LegalTrac given the proposed cost increase.
We are also reviewing the following journals considered for cancellation in 2017
- Cold Springer Harbor symposia on quantitative biology – 3 downloads in 2017, 0 downloads in 2018
- Fundamental and applied limnology – 12 downloads in 2017 (cost/download – $165)
- Journal of cell biology – alternate access is available via PubMed
- Wood and fiber science – no usage statistics available
| If you use any of these resources we would greatly appreciate hearing from you regarding how you are using them. Information that would be particularly helpful includes: details of courses using these resources, number of researchers and postgraduate students in your area using these resources and uniqueness of the resource/whether any alternative sources for the same information would suffice. If you are aware of colleagues or postgraduate students in your area or other areas who use these resources please let them know about this as well. |
Has the Library already decided to cancel these resources?
- The Library is proposing to cancel the CRSP US stock database based on consultation with Business, Economics and Finance so far. A final decision regarding CRSP will be made in August/September after all feedback on this proposal has been received and before the 2019 subscription comes due
- No cancellation decisions have yet been made regarding any of these resources
- Your feedback is important to guide us as to whether we should be proposing any of these resources for cancellation
- Should we propose any of these resources for cancellation, we will send out another email in early August with the details for consultation. There will be another opportunity to comment at that point
- Any cancellation proposals will also go to the Information Resources Advisory Group (IRAG) and Library Committee for advice before a final decision is made. The final decision will rest with the Library.
Thank you for your understanding and assistance with this review,
Helen Thomas Tim Stedman