Redefining UMaine’s library

That University of Maine faculty are upset over journal cancellations (BDN, Sept. 27-28) probably seemed pretty tame news. But this story portends a fundamental change in how the university library will serve both the university and the community in the next century. In a “knowledge-based” society, the library’s broad collection of information is a key resource.

Journals are periodicals where researchers communicate their results to the world. Journals conduct editorial review that helps assure the validity of research. The flow of information in journals is central to teaching and research activities of faculty. Faculty at every research university jealously guard their libraries.

Reductions in journal subscriptions are not new at the university; the faculty uproar is. During 2000-2002, the library cut 900 journals without comparable faculty complaint. But this fall, faculty are astonished to find the most important journals – journals that publish research that wins research awards like the Nobel Prize, journals that dominate required reading lists – on a list of cancellations.

Two things were different this time. First, a decision was made to cancel almost any journal for which electronic access is available. Second, this decision was made with no input from faculty and in the absence of a permanent head librarian (the librarian having recently retired).

For an accountant facing a budget crisis, it might seem obvious that journals available electronically are easy cuts. The issue is more complicated for a research library. First, that decision discriminates heavily against the most prominent journals. Widely read journals, which are usually the most prestigious, are typically priced at $50 to $100 a year. That pricing is possible because many individuals and libraries subscribe to cover costs. These journals can be available electronically because few libraries would cancel inexpensive, important journals. A second set of more specialized journals carry heftier prices of $200 to $1,000 a year. These journals are sold almost exclusively to a small number of research libraries. These expensive journals are not available electronically precisely because libraries would cancel them to save hundreds of dollars.

Second, that a journal is available electronically today does not guarantee future electronic access. If other libraries also make wholesale cancellations of journals that are available electronically, some journals will stop or limit electronic access. At that point, the university will face large expenses to buy the missing volumes or else accept a collection that has major gaps in important journals. Third, there may be more restrictions on electronic access for nonuniversity users in the future.

To avoid losing revenues to electronic “leakage,” some electronic resources restrict who can use the resources. Libraries in Maine that rely on the university for interlibrary loan may be unable to “borrow” electronic copies. The library’s mission to serve the broader public may be compromised.

Fourth, electronic versions are not perfect substitutes for paper. E-books have not been a success because paper is a unique delivery vehicle for information. Research faculty and graduate students browse current editions to keep up with their discipline. Almost any user of the reference collection of journals can tell of serendipitous discovery while searching a paper volume.

Research libraries have had a unique repository mission to maintain a core collection of research material. The definition of that core collection was determined jointly with the community served by the library. That core collection was the informational foundation of the research mission of the institution. At a comprehensive university like the University of Maine, that core included the major journals in all the traditional disciplines. The cancellation of the many prominent journals abandons the repository mission.

Redefining the library mission in an electronic age is not entirely a surprise. Indeed, the university library has been a leader in integrating electronic media into its missions. The University of Maine library is probably the most important electronic, as well as paper, library resource in the state. Perhaps in the future, the repository mission of research libraries will be abandoned as a relic of the pre-electronic age. But there are several indications that the university has redefined the role of its library without careful thought.

The decision to redefine the mission of the university library is too important to the university and to the state to be made hurriedly with no consultation with the library’s stakeholders. The decision needs to be revisited, now, before journals disappear from shelves next January.

Ralph Townsend is a professor of economics at the University of Maine.