Memorial University

Memorial University Libraries

Journal Retention Survey

Journal Retention Survey

All faculty, researchers and instructors are encouraged to complete the Journal Retention Survey before June 1, 2015.

- Take the Journal Retention Survey

-  under review

The Memorial University Libraries are fortunate to have avoided significant serial cancellations during the last ten years.  However, it is no longer possible to maintain the balance between the demands for the quality information resources required for research and teaching, and ongoing publication price increases and currency exchange losses resulting from a weakened Canadian dollar.

Steps were taken in 2014-2015 to mitigate the impact, but like all Canadian research libraries, we are now confronted with the difficult task of discontinuing subscriptions in 2016 to a significant number of journals.  Your input is needed to ensure that the impact on your research and teaching is minimized.

Collections librarians bring their expertise, time and energy to the process of considering research support and the curricular needs of our user communities.  They have examined usage statistics, uniqueness of journal titles, the degree of overlap with other resources, alternative resources, and other cost-saving measures that have allowed us to avoid cancellations over recent years. A major component of the proposed strategy to reduce expenditure involves cancelling four large publisher journal packages and subscribing only to a smaller number of indispensable titles from these same sources.  The packages under consideration for cancellation are: Cambridge Journals Online, Oxford Journals Online, SpringerLink, and the Wiley Online Library.   in these packages is provided for your review. Other scholarly resources may also need to be considered for cancellation.

Your input is urgently needed regarding which journals from the packages listed and more generally should be retained. We would appreciate your response to the attached survey, which asks for your overall top scholarly resources for research and teaching, By combining your advice and feedback with our statistics on usage patterns, we will identify required titles and continue to subscribe to as many as our resources allow.  We will provide access, as we have in the past, to less used journals through interlibrary loan copies and procurement of alternative resources when appropriate and possible.

Please respond to the survey to provide your vital input by June 1st, 2015. Remember we are asking for your top scholarly resources, including those in the four packages.  Additional feedback after this deadline is welcomed and will be integrated, but we would appreciate your response as soon as possible to develop an optimal strategy.  

Ongoing communications will be shared on our website and through your collections librarians as we move through this process.  Thank you for your participation.

Lorraine Busby, 
University Librarian

Collections Librarians by subject: