Serials Review
Spring 2006

In December of 2005, the Libraries learned that the 2005/06 F & A (Facilities & Administration or overhead) allocation that it receives from the Office of Research and Graduate Studies had been reduced by $285,000. This F&A allocation, generated from research grants obtained by the faculty, enables the Libraries to provide journals and electronic resources that support the research enterprises of the university. This reduction constituted an almost 29% decrease to F & A and forced us to review research materials made possible by such funding. The Libraries faced with potentially making substantive cuts to the collections budget in addition to the 800 journal titles canceled in Fall 2005 to cover the impact of inflation.

In order to absorb such a substantial reduction, we identified research materials to cancel and focused those cancellations on the areas, primarily science and engineering at this university, supported by this funding. Using citation analysis, we obtained data on the number of times a journal is cited by an NC State author and the number of articles by NC State researchers published in a particular journal. These data points, along with input from faculty gathered over the past 6 years, allowed us to compile a list of titles. This list of titles added up to approximately $792,000 of which we potentially needed to identify at least 35% to cut. (Note that the list is larger than the amount we will have to cancel to allow some flexibility in making decisions.) Campus was asked to review these titles and let us know which were essential for research. The funding was reinstated and no journals were cut due to the initial reduction in overhead funding in Spring 2006.



The NCSU Libraries is committed to maintaining a collection of excellence that meets your research and learning needs. While we have made every effort to retain those titles deemed critical to research and teaching, this cancellation will be a big loss for the collection and we will work with you to address any impact.

Serials Reviews were also conducted in 2005 and 2002.