University Slashes Thousands of Journal Subscriptions, Spurring Faculty Fears

[Updated (12/8/2015, 2:39 p.m.) with a statement from the university.]

Faculty members are crying foul over Memorial University of Newfoundland’s decision to eliminate thousands of journal subscriptions next year to cut costs. CBC News reports the institution will stop its subscriptions to about 2,500 of the approximately 80,000 journals it receives starting in January.

The university’s head librarian, Lorraine Busby, told CBC News that the library simply does not have enough money to maintain the subscriptions. “We really don’t want to be doing this,” she said.

The university’s administration solicited faculty feedback in deciding which subscriptions to end, but some professors say the process was not transparent enough. “Here we are just a few weeks away from when these cuts will take effect, and we’re really, a lot of us, caught off-guard and not really sure what’s in store for our research and for our students,” a political-science professor, Scott Matthews, told the CBC.

In an update posted on Tuesday afternoon, the university said 5 percent of the 80,000 journals it subscribes to were “being considered for possible cancellation.”

“Our aim, as always, is to protect the maximum possible number of high-quality resources that advance leading-edge research and teaching, while facing the challenge of balancing a steady-state budget,” Ms. Busby said in the statement.

Correction (12/8/2015, 2:40 p.m.): A previous version of this post stated that the university subscribes to 4,000 journals. It subscribes to 80,000.