Budget Reductions at Egan Library

Mission

Central to the Egan Library Mission is "to provide relevant, diverse, and well-maintained collections", and we take the stewardship of our budget allocations seriously, mindful to meet the needs of the whole university community.

Budget

When budget dollars shrink and the prices of information products (journals, databases, books, and other library materials) continue to rise, we must make informed choices. One strategy is to identify lesser-used collections and balance the coverage of our collections as a whole with the price-tags to make the least hurtful impact on our users.

Process

A note on process - we strive to involve our stakeholders (many times UAS faculty) on pending decisions to cut a resource. Sometimes there is a time factor when this is not easy to do. Ultimately, our goal is to responsibly manage our budget and provide the best of what we can afford well into the future.

Publisher Discounts and Package Deals

Sometimes publishers offer specials on certain titles or we are able to get a title at a discount as part of a larger package. We scout for any opportunities to bring high priced titles needed by our community.

Alternative Publishing

We still have opportunities to bring more resources through the library even with a shrinking budget. Some Open Access (free to access) publications can provide excellent scholarship in an alternative model to big-publisher prices.

Consortium Deals

We work closely with UAA, UAF, and other libraries across the state when able to get deals on resources that the institutions might otherwise not be able to afford on their own. We have many large subscription deals with these partners, including for Taylor & Francis, Springer, JAMA, ScienceDirect, JSTOR Ebooks, and of course the statewide SLED databases.