Library staff routinely analyze electronic journals and subscription collections to identify and weed out collections that are low value to the institution due to low overall usage, high cost per use, duplication of key titles in other electronic collections, unmanageable costs, misalignment with current curricular and research needs, poor license terms, and/or unreasonably high price increases. Additional factors for consideration include the number of departments and users served by each resource, feedback from faculty, students, and staff regarding essential resources, and availability of alternative access options such as interlibrary loan and direct article purchasing. This review process is necessary to ensure that we are making the most effective use of our budget while continuing to support the core needs of our academic community.
Many electronic journal titles are made available through subscription to a package of titles, which renders title-by-title deselection impossible. Packages are routinely analyzed to determine if the overall cost of the subscription is worthwhile, considering both the high and low use titles. Sometimes titles are not available for individual subscription. Packages might also be made available by a consortia subscription, like through VIVA, meaning that W&M Libraries does not have the ability to individually cancel a product that is under a current contract, barring severe financial constraints.
For FY26, the library received a flat collections budget in addition to a 1.5% reallocation request from our overall budget, which we opted to take out of collections. This required us to plan for cuts to compensate for both contractual yearly price increases and the reallocation, which together came to a total reduction of $300,000. As the library is facing substantial budget cuts, it require us to make difficult decisions about reducing or canceling underused or outdated resources. We embarked on an analysis of all database packages to determine what subscriptions met that criteria. Access will cease at the end of our current subscription period for each title, which range from August 1-December 31, 2025.
At the same time, we are committed to retaining flexibility to add new subscriptions and materials when they are essential for teaching or research. While the budget is smaller, our aim is to make sure the collection continues to support emerging areas of curriculum and research.
In addition to the subscriptions listed above, W&M Libraries opted to sunset our APC fund, rather than take deeper cuts to databases.
In FY25 the library received a 2% increase to the collections budget. As our subscriptions increase between 2 and 5% each year, we did not have the funding to continue all our current resources. The following databases were not renewed or were downgraded.
Journal Cancellations in FY25 lists all the individual journal titles for which we cancelled subscriptions (viewable only by individuals with a current WM login).
In FY24, the library received no increase to our collections budget. As the subscriptions increase between 2-5% each year, a flat budget reduces our spending capability by around $150,000 for the year, requiring us to absorb the increases through cuts or other reductions in spending. In this case, we compensated for the decline by purchasing fewer perpetual access collections, despite having several of high researcher interest on our purchase request list.