Office of the Dean
Vernon R. Alden Library

May, 2009

Colleagues:

I write to advise you that the University Libraries will be conducting a serials cancellation project during the spring and summer 2009. The project will be coordinated by the Assistant Dean for Collections and Access, Jan Maxwell. Later this week, subject librarians will be contacting faculty to describe the process.

The University Libraries is initiating this project for budgetary reasons. As did most academic units, the University Libraries received a budget reduction target earlier this year. Slightly more than $675,000 must be cut from the Libraries' $12,000,000 annual expenditures. The University Libraries has already reduced staffing and operations by $300,000 but must reduce materials expenditures by $375,000 to reach this target.

The Libraries worked with the Faculty Senate University Libraries Committee and the Provost's Office to determine the proportions of staffing and materials reductions. The Library Committee spent considerable time working with librarians to update the acquisitions allocation model, providing a fair and rational way to distribute these reductions. The Library Committee also gave extremely valuable advice on how to best manage the process of soliciting participation from the schools and colleges. I want to thank the committee for their hard work on this complex and unpleasant task.

In the near future, a web page outlining the process, the timeline, and individual fund targets will be available. There will be a link to this site from the University Library's front page. If you have questions please do not hesitate to contact me (seaman@ohio.edu), Jan Maxwell (maxwelj2@ohio.edu), or the subject librarian for your department (http://www.library.ohiou.edu/info/staff.php?type=bib).

Regards,

Scott Seaman