Next year the funding of the Helsinki University Library is cut more than 2 million euros compared to the year 2015. The large savings have an impact to material purchases e.g. the Library is unable to continue all journal subscriptions and the access to some of the current databases cannot be guaranteed.
To keep the material cut as small as possible the Library is going to renew its services and reduce some of the facilities in a controlled way.
All the disciplines have been treated equally, the reduction affects all, says the Service Director Annikki Roos. The weeding of resources has been difficult, diminishing the standard of service is not pleasant to anyone.
The resources on the reduction list have been thoroughly evaluated. In addition to the user figures the Library’s information specialists have calculated e.g. the price of one use per a certain journal and also done retrospective analysis of the development of costs. Other evaluation methods have been e.g. journal’s JUFO-classification, impact factors, reference analyses and the feedback from researchers.
However, we must remember that the majority of subscriptions continue as before and new material is also acquired, says Annikki Roos.
The weeding includes all resources from e-journals to text books. The Library has already been prepared for the future by acquiring new e-book packages and reference material for the year 2016.
E-book is the primary text book
As a rule the Library acquires resources as e-books and e-journals. The acquisition of printed text books is bound to diminish due to the cutting of funds.
When planning the course requirements the teachers could benefit more than before from e-books, digital journal articles and open access publications.
The Library wishes that when the faculties and departments evaluate the renewals of course requirements they would also take into consideration the cost of material.
In future the students have to be prepared to co-operate with other course attendants in a way that enables the course material for all, or to purchase the literature with own funds.
Open access enables the change
The increase in scientific open access publishing brings a little glimpse of hope to the gloom due to the fund cuts in the University and its Library, states the University Librarian, Professor Kimmo Tuominen from the Helsinki University Library.
For example parallel saving of article manuscripts to the University’s open-access digital archive Helda is recommendable to all researchers. We have to advance and take action step by step in order to change the unfavorable cost structure and to enhance the open and unrestricted publication of scholarly articles.
Open science is one of the University’s key goals in the next strategy term. The University has signed among other things LERU’s Christmas is over statement and the Haag declaration, both of which react to the present situation in scientific publishing and to the control of copyrights which affect unfavorably the development in research activity.
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