Dear S&T Community:
Curtis Laws Wilson Library has completed its annual review of the 2020-2021 materials portfolio.
The review is based on the following key budgetary factors:
Because of the substantial budget cut as well as inflationary pressures, the library will be required to cancel a large number of resources this fiscal year. Criteria considered when identifying materials for possible cancellation included a cost per use of $10 or more, with some exceptions due to the specialized nature of the resource; availability through interlibrary loan; contractual obligations; and the ability to "unbundle" journal packages and subscribe only to highly used titles. (*Details on how the usage data was gathered are below.)
Another factor in the library's considerations is the shared system-wide contractual agreement with Elsevier that has provided the Missouri S&T campus with access to approximately 2,500 journals on the ScienceDirect platform. Although talks are continuing, all four campus libraries must make cuts to local Elsevier subscriptions this year, which would negate the terms of the contract. Missouri S&T will then lose access to all content from the year 2000 onward for journals in this collection. So, in addition to making cuts in the total number of Elsevier subscriptions, the library plans to drop some of the current subscriptions in order to add new subscriptions to the journals in the shared collection that are most heavily used by our campus.
We have provided a spreadsheet detailing projected FY21 costs and, where applicable, cost per use for items being considered for cancellation. A second spreadsheet details the additions and cuts to Missouri S&T's Elsevier subscriptions. See the attached Excel files on the right-hand side of this guide. Also, please note that each spreadsheet has multiple tabs.
To appeal a cancellation, each department must respond as a unit through their departmental library liaison, or if there is no department liaison, the department chair. Please send all appeals to library@mst.edu. The deadline for submissions is Friday, October 16, 2020, to ensure that all appeals receive due consideration. When submitting appeals, please include details that might help with deliberations.
We appreciate your assistance in this process.
Oliver Chen, Dean of the Library
Faculty Senate Library Learning & Resources Committee
*The statistics for online use of materials were retrieved from the publisher or vendor; most of those sources use the same format for providing statistics, which ensures they are comparable.