Articles tagged with: Budget

  • Message from the University Librarian: Library Collections Update

    November 19, 2024

    As Brock community members are aware, the university underwent an intensive budget mitigation exercise in order to reduce the operating deficit for the fiscal year 2024-2025. As a result, the library acquisitions budget was frozen at the 2023-2024 level ($5.75 million). This translates to a projected $250,000 shortfall due to the perpetual rise in the costs of library subscription prices.  

    Background 

    During the summer of 2024, the library conducted a comprehensive review of our collection expenditures. To have a balanced budget, we determined that we need to reduce spending on both journal subscriptions and books/e-books.  

    As shared in our June update, a significant structural challenge is the ‘Big Deal’ model: Major publishers bundle their catalogue of journal subscriptions into large, expensive packages.  At Brock, the Big Deals with Elsevier, Wiley, Taylor & Francis, Springer, and Sage exert outsized pressure on our constrained budget, even when the data demonstrates that researchers are not using a majority of these bundled journal titles.  

    Decision and Impact 

    The outcome of this evidence-based evaluation is that we are cancelling the Springer Big Deal subscription, effective January 1, 2025. Our analysis indicated that cancelling the Springer package (~2,100 journal titles) would help us achieve the necessary savings while having a lesser impact on Brock’s research and teaching when compared to other packages. Relative to our other Big Deals, Springer has the poorest value proposition, with relatively lower usage but at a high cost.  

    As a result, the Brock community will lose subscription access to Springer publications from 2025 onwards. Researchers will continue to be able to request new Springer articles using the expanded interlibrary loan service. Open Access versions of articles can often be located using a number of alternative approaches. 

    Please note: 

    • Permanent access to all Springer journal content from 2024 and earlier will remain available through Omni and Springer Journals Online. 
    • Springer Nature journals are not impacted; these subscriptions are managed separately.   
    • The Library is currently exploring individually subscribing to a small number of high-use Springer journals. Once determined, this information will be shared on the Subscriptions and Budget FAQ page. 

    Cancelling the Springer package will achieve about half of our budget reduction target. The remaining savings will be found by reducing our spending on new books and e-books, and cancelling a number of smaller, low-use subscriptions.  

    Communication and Next Steps 

    At Senate meetings this fall, I shared the state of the collections budget and the challenging context of the profit-driven scholarly publishing industry.  We had productive discussions about the unsustainable ecosystem and the frustrations of academics worldwide. The Library continues to advocate for and support Open Access publishing as the main path to effect change 

    We appreciate your support for the Library and your patience with this process. If you have any questions, please reach out to me at  nnolan@brocku.ca 

    Regards, 

    Nicole Nolan
    University Librarian
    Brock University Library 

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  • Collections update: budget planning for 2024-2025

    As Brock community members will be awarethe university underwent an intensive budget mitigation exercise in order to reduce the operating deficit for the fiscal year 2024-2025. As a result, the Library acquisitions budget was frozen at the 2023-2024 level ($5.75 million): We did not receive the inflationary protection increase as we have in previous yearsFor context, annual inflationary protection in the acquisitions budget (~2-3% increase) has historically aimed to sustain the library collection.

    Structural Challenges: Annual Subscription Increases

    In planning for the coming year, the Library must account for standard annual subscription price increases from publishers and vendors. These increases can range from zero to over twelve percent.

    Subscriptions constitute the majority of our annual spending (see Figure 1). As a result, recurring pressure in the form of annual increases can have an outsized impact on the overall picture.

    Pie chart of the 2024 Library Acquisitions Budget.

    Figure 1: The 2024 Library acquisitions budget is $5,745,000. Subscriptions account for 75% of the total, books: 19%, and infrastructure: 6%

    As terms come up for renewal, we are negotiating to keep increases as low as possible – but a frozen acquisitions budget means we need to find savings to absorb anticipated price increases.  

    Structural Challenges: The ‘Big Deal’

    The prominent business model for most publicly funded research is the profit-driven, highly consolidated scholarly publishing industry. Publishers gain the rights to the work of academics and then sell the research back to university libraries with steep profit margins.  

    The major publishers bundle their catalogue of journal subscriptions into large, expensive packages, known as “Big Deals”. Brock University Library subscribes to all five major scientific journal Big Deals: Elsevier, Wiley, Taylor & Francis, Springer, and Sage. 

    Over the last decade, academic libraries worldwide have been responding to the combination of budgetary pressures and a broken, exclusionary publishing system by closely assessing and sometimes cancelling some of their Big Deals.  A non-comprehensive list of “Big Deal” journal cancellations can be found on SPARC’s website: Big Deal Cancellation Tracking – SPARC (sparcopen.org) 

    Summer 2024 Assessment Project

    The Library is currently focused on an assessment project, reviewing our current usage and spending patterns to find savings. The assessment team includes librarians and staff from the Collections Services department, led by the Head of Collections Services.

    Project Principles:

    1. Ensure any cuts are distributed: Not overly harming a single discipline.
    2. Evidence-based. Collect usage data to inform decisions. 
    3. Assess high-cost materials. Evaluate Cost Per Use/value for money.
    4. Balance with qualitative data. Consider Brock’s unique programs and strategic directions.
    5. Consider what work the library can reasonably absorb: Cuts are not labour-neutral & typically remove efficiencies. 

    Communication

    In April 2024, the Library presented information about the acquisitions budget and collections assessment to various stakeholders, including Research & Scholarship Policy Committee, Teaching & Learning Policy Committee, Research Strategy Operations Group, Library Representatives Meeting, and the Associate Deans Meeting. Library budget planning was also presented at the February meeting of the Planning Priorities and Budget Advisory Committee. 

    Further communication efforts will include keeping this webpage updated with project developments and additional information sessions in the fall. 

    You are welcome to contact us with questions or concerns. 

    Monica Rettig, Acting Associate University Librarian Research mrettig@brocku.ca  

    Alicia Zorzetto, Head Collections Services azorzetto@brocku.ca  

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    Categories: Collections, Main