This poster session will outline the strategy Connecticut College librarians used in an attempt to secure funds to offset inflationary cost increases for serials and e-resources and the strategy used to eliminate subscriptions when that request for funding was denied. One half of the poster, "Failure," will share the activities and data used to educate the College community about the crisis in the materials budget and to convince budget planners that additional funds were needed to prevent the elimination of resources.
As new funds were not forthcoming, the second half of the poster, "Success," will share the process used for faculty and library staff to determine together which resources would be eliminated and thus ensure the retention of more important titles. The Collections Advisory Task Force, including faculty with a history of heavy library use and librarians, identified $100,000 worth of titles for elimination. The Task Force meetings, though initially contentious, were effective in establishing process and trust, and eventually members agreed on titles for cancellation. The list was presented to the College faculty in May 2016.
This poster session will be of interest to those who face the same kind of pressure to reduce subscriptions due to flat or decreasing materials budgets. Others will find interesting the strategies to convince campus stakeholders of the problem, and to manage the situation when funding is not approved. We hope viewers will come away with insight to improve their own strategies to secure funding or, alternatively, manage subscription elimination decisions effectively.
