Director Sidney Verba told American Libraries that eliminating approximately 193 titles—including about 175 from the libraries’ largest supplier, Elsevier—would mean a potential savings of more than $300,000.
“Journal costs have been rising faster than healthcare,” Digital Acquisitions Program Librarian Ivy Anderson said in the November 24 Harvard Crimson. Cutting some little-used journals will allow the library to devote more money to new books or other journals. “Ninety percent of the reading is done in 10% of the journals,” Verba told the Crimson, noting that popular journals would be retained.
The library’s three-year contract with Elsevier, which currently supplies almost 800 journals, will expire at the end of the year, and officials are trying to negotiate a less restrictive contract. “They make it difficult to cancel and we get locked into buying,” Verba said. “We want to sign a shorter-term contract with more flexibility.”
Posted November 26, 2003.