October 2015

To the FSU Community:

As you may have heard, the Libraries are cancelling a large e-journal package purchased from the publisher Springer. Continuing price increases have raised the cost of journals every year by 4-6%. Combined with a flat budget, this situation has forced the FSU Libraries -- and many other libraries -- to make hard decisions in order to stay within our budget.

In summer 2015 a faculty committee reviewed the libraries’ subscriptions and recommended cancellations. Springer, at $735K per year, was targeted because of its high cost per use compared to other similar packages. Further, Springer charges FSU several times more than it charges other Florida universities for the same exact product.

This doesn’t mean that Springer journals will be unavailable. We are retaining subscriptions to a number of the most-heavily-used titles. All content published between 1997 and 2015 will remain available, as well. However, some articles, starting in 2016, will be accessed through Interlibrary Loan. We are optimizing our workflow to ensure that these articles can be sent to you within 24 hours, in most cases.

I want to assure FSU faculty and students that we are doing everything within our power to minimize inconvenience, and that all Springer journal content will continue to be accessible to you. If you encounter difficulties, your subject librarian and all of us at the FSU Libraries are ready to work with you to ensure speedy access to this and all library content. I am available, as well, to talk to you about any concerns you may have.

Thank you for your understanding.

Julia Zimmerman
Dean of FSU Libraries
 

Additional information:

Frequently Asked Questions
General answers to your most common questions regarding this issue.

Faculty Senate Library Committee Budget Crisis TF report
Budget report including journal cancelation recommendations. Note: Not all recommendations in this report were adopted.

Interlibrary Loan Service (ILLiad)
Get familiar with FSU Libraries' interlibrary loan service.

2016 Springer Title List
List of 2016 subscribed journals and titles for ILL article requests.

How Does Open Access Relate to Subscription Journal Pricing?
A blog post from the FSU Libraries about an alternative way to manage the publishing of academic research.

News articles related to this topic:

No Big Deal: Three Libraries Survive Cuts to Serials Access ALA Annual 2012
Library Journal - June 2012

Leaving the "Big Deal" ...Five Years Later
The Serials Librarian - July 2015