So you have to cancel journals? Statistics that help

Few libraries have been immune to the impact of inflation on journal prices, and many have been involved in extensive journal cancellation projects. To aid in the cancellation decision process, Colorado State University Libraries have been compiling internal statistics on journal usage and merging them with statistics from commercial sources. This paper describes the process and outlines how the collected data can be used both to identify journals for cancellation and to provide justification for these decisions to the campus community. As the inflation rate of journals has outstripped many library budgets, cancellation projects have become a routine part of library collection management for universities. These projects are extremely difficult since decisions have serious implications for the collection and library relations with the academic departments. Deciding which journals should be canceled becomes a serious and frustrating task. Statistical information about a library collection can be a valuable tool in both identifying journals for cancellation and justifying cancellation decisions. The Colorado State University Libraries (CSUL) have been collecting a variety of statistics about the periodicals collection for several years. This article will discuss how these statistics were used in a recent cancellation project. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.