How Diverse Librarians Increased Access to Electronic Journals, Developed a Print/Electronic Collection Development Policy and Preserved the Collection

This poster reports on a project initiated to establish a framework for evaluating our serials collection in order to preserve the collection from a flat budget and ever increasing serial costs and to meet patron demand for expanded access to electronic resources. An additional outcome was the development of a combined print and electronic serials collection development policy. A Journals Committee was formed to assess the value and most appropriate format(s) of individual journal titles. Methods used included a mathematical formula calculating a title\u27s relative value and a faculty survey soliciting most-used titles and preferred format. Faculty department heads were asked to evaluate holdings in their subject specialty. Faculty publication patterns, usage statistics, and interlibrary loan (ILL) data were examined. Information was weighted and used to develop an assessment tool to establish a title\u27s value. The results of this methodology were applied to the 2005 serials renewal process