When faced with my VP's reluctance to approve a 10.5% increase in the
Library's budget, I had to come up with some alternatives. The
"reluctance" did not come as a surprise, as last year was the first in
5-6 where I did not need to cut, and was actually able to order a few new
titles. SO I had at least two contingency plans. One was to cut the
Intorack Health subscription, and the other to cut hte hard copy for most
of the 35 full text titles we subscribe on OVID. SInce the first
provided us with "even money", it was cut. (If and when the organization
decides to become more proactive with Consumer Information, they can
re-discover what's out there. (I don't expect the library to have much
to do with such a program when it gets underway, as I have probably making
a pest of myself over the matter).
For those among you who don't have such "fluff" in their budgets, my
reasoning for cutting the hard copy are: This is currently a 2-library
organization, each paying "institutional" prices for these 34 titles.
THe online access is networked to all, so t hat the full text "link:
exists. THe problem is the coverage of the most recent issues, or
3-months or so of available print copy. We also have access to a
Currrent Contents OVID (on a stand-alone computer), and can produce TOC.
THe 2nd hospital does request materails from us (ours is a much larger
collection), so they will have to agree to fax us copies of articles from
these journals as needed. To test the reality of "how many times do
users actually pull a recent journal off the shelf", we removed several
journals from the current display shelves and keep them on a back shelf
in the office area. Users have to ASK for them, and we keep track. It
is about 2-months now, and the tally is "zero". Not even once.
At the turn of the century, there is a possibility that we will become a
three-hospital system, with three libraries, subscribing to the same
title 3 times over, plus the additional costs of online fulltext OVid.
And then, if the lawyer so decrees, there will be a CCC contract on top
of it... I am not trying to cut mu own throat here, but soemthing
isn't quite right in this system. It looks that at the moment the
budget is set, with no more cuts. But I am keeping such options
open since the issue will probably come up again, except if lightening
strikes in form of the publishers decide not to raise prices ---
It's too hot to wish anyone anything but "stay cool" this weekend (years
back we spent one summer in Lincoln Nebrasks, with two young kids, in a
small house with not even a fan. the temperature stayed at 104 for days
and days, cooling off to 90 at night. We left to visit Minneapolis, and
the night we arrived the weather broke, and we were freezing next day,
had to buy sweatshirts...
Stay cool - or use your closest public library, which is officially
serving as "colling stations" in Illinois.
Dalia
Kleinmuntz
847/570-2664 Webster Library FAX: 847/570-2926
Evanston Hospital
2650 Ridge Ave
Evanston IL 60201 [log in to unmask]
______________________________________________________________________
"..the secret of the care of the patient is in caring for the patient"
- Francis W. Peabody
(1881-1927)
