Dartblog

It seems that while the College has enough money to pay $41 million to revamp the Hanover Inn, and $150 million for two other huge new buildings, there is less and less money for incidentals like academic journal subscriptions. Cuts need to be made somewhere, I guess.

All ribaldry aside, no purer example of the administration’s messed-up priorities is to be found. Big buildings mean nothing if they are not staffed by contented, well supported scholars — both students and faculty. Beyond the cancellation of various journals, the signal sent by the below memo will undoubtedly lead to the loss of talented professors who want to teach at schools where the life of the mind is of greater importannce than large structures.

From: “Francis X. Oscadal”
Date: July 13, 2012
To:
Subject: History Journal Cancellations

Faculty and fellow Bibliographers:

I’m sending this message to all History faculty, a “Medievalist” list of faculty, and several of my fellow library bibliographers in the humanities and social sciences. Sorry about the long list of recipients. I thought about Bcc-ing everyone but I want you to notice if I missed someone who may be interested.

I’ve enclosed a spreadsheet of titles I’d like you to review for possible cancellations.

As I said to the History faculty in an earlier message we, library bibliographers, are being asked to look for possible journal cancellations because of projected journal price increases in this FY. The library’s acquisition budget is still recovering from its contribution to the College’s fiscal recovery. The inflation rate for library materials continues to outpace other areas and we’ve reached a point where we are being asked to look for ways to economize even as we continue to grow the collections.

* I want to emphasize that this is a review of our journal holdings. We haven’t been given an order to cut “X.”
* We want to know if there are titles for which we can cease subscriptions and rely on document delivery (interlibrary loan). Titles that needn’t be onsite.
* This list contains titles that I want to know about. It’s drawn from a much larger list of titles that the “history” budget pays for. Their inclusion on the list is NOT a reflection on the quality of their content - I want to know if it’s still important that we subscribe to them in the context of your teaching and research.
* This list is predominately print-based; there are a few electronic titles; and another category where a print subscription is required for current electronic access. In the last category canceling print can result in an embargo of electronic access for 12-18 months, i.e. the latest volume.
* It may be easiest to say which titles you think may be canceled. I’ll assume all others should be retained or you have no opinion.
* PLEASE “Reply All.” A title that’s not important to one person may be critical to someone else.
* This isn’t a vote. If anyone feels a title/subscription is important I’m inclined to retain it - a Yes overrides a No.

If my message raises questions don’t hesitate to contact me.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to consider this question.

Fran
—
Francis Oscadal
History, Government, Law Librarian
RIS Department
Baker-Berry Library
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH 03755

In various speeches Jim Kim told the Dartmouth community that the budget would be balanced with “strategic cuts rather than cuts across the board.” Either you believe that reducing journal subscriptions is a well thought-out strategic cut, or perhaps the above memo is further evidence of the gap between words and actions on the part of the Kim/Folt administration.