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)