SUNY ESF
Library Budgeting
How we evaluate expenditures and leverage funds
Since 2018 the library has used the Cost per Paid Use model to evaluate journal packages and individual title subscriptions. This model evaluates the cost of a subscription based on what we use VS what we should be paying for. In an oversimplification, this focuses cost/value calculations on the most current five years of scholarship and excludes from value calculations such things as back files which we have perpetual post-termination access rights to (and thus have already paid for and should not be used when factoring in current expense) and those low use titles that under CONTU (Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works) guidelines we would not pay to access. This informs us of what our “real” cost is for using a subscription, or how much value a title contributes to a “bundled” publisher subscription package or collection. If the cost to subscribe exceeds the cost of paid-uses, a title or resource becomes a candidate for an on-demand fulfillment model.
Please see our technical document on Aligning Budget Limits with Access Needs to learn of the tactics we can apply to leverage our funds.
The data that informs our decisions
Elsevier Individual Subscriptions
Wiley Individual Subscriptions
Acquisitions FY24 Spend vs FY25 Targets
|
2024 |
FY 25 Target |
Resource |
Notes |
|
$135k |
$40k |
Elsevier Individual titles |
Cost-ineffective titles cut |
|
$6k |
0 |
Cambridge |
Cancel due to low use |
|
$81k |
$86k |
ACS: All publications, Legacy Archive ($74k/$6k) |
|
|
$70k |
$70k |
Scifinder |
|
|
$6k |
$6k |
PivotRP |
Supports Current Strategy |
|
$103k |
$75k |
Other Individual Journal subscriptions |
Cost-ineffective titles cut |
|
$107k |
$20k |
Wiley |
Higher back file value |
|
$20k |
$21k |
E&E |
Proprietary, maintain |
|
$8k |
$10k |
Nature |
Maintain |
|
$18k |
$19k |
Royal Society of Chemistry |
Maintain |
|
$6k |
$7k |
Science |
Maintain |
|
$20k |
$22k |
Web of Science |
Proprietary, Maintain |
|
$13k |
$15k |
Misc. Proprietary Databases |
BioOne, BOTW, Avery, CRC… |
|
$70k |
Fulfillment to replace subscriptions |
Anticipated costs to replace subscriptions |
|
|
$33k |
$8k |
Misc acq./fulfillment/all else |
TAPPI, NERL, PQ… memberships, consortial fees, misc. |
|
$593k |
$461k |
Subtotal |
Subtotal materials and subscriptions |
|
$45k |
$45k |
Infrastructure products |
Ex Libris, OCLC, etc |
|
$671k |
$514k |
Estimated Grand Total |
Target Spend |