Abstract
The creation of new degrees at an academic institution often requires additional library resources to provide adequate support. Identifying the needed library materials can be especially difficult for interdisciplinary programs. The process of serials analysis undertaken for new interdisciplinary degrees at the University of Texas at Dallas was explained in this session. The presenter also discussed results and the need for ongoing analysis of serials collections used for academic programs.
BACKGROUND
The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) is the third smallest of the nine academic University of Texas components. It was founded in 1969 from a research institute, and 40 percent of the 13,300 full-time equivalents are graduate students. A new president has brought a new focus to the UTD campus and curricula have been reworked. There is a focus on interdisciplinary studies. The past ten years have seen an 83 percent increase in total degree programs offered on campus, and a 131 percent increase in the Ph.D. programs offered. UTD also has mandated that at least forty-two new degrees be added in the next three years. Because of their interdisciplinary approach, UTD offers many programs not offered in other locations, such as Art and Technology, Supply Chain Management, or Emerging Media.
There are several steps to the approval process of a new degree at UTD. A proposal is submitted by faculty members to the Provost's Office. The proposal is then sent through several governance committees at the university, followed by approval at the UT system level, and then it is sent on to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. The proposal submitted by faculty requires a statement from the library director, regardless of the level of degree proposed. This statement outlines the cost of support of the program over the first years of implementation and provides an analysis of the support available in existing library collections. Monographic, serial, and other collections are evaluated in this process. The steps taken to evaluate serials were covered in this presentation.
SERIAL COLLECTION EVALUATION
The first step undertaken in the serials collection analysis for new degree proposals at UTD is to establish a core list of titles for that discipline. The library searches for other universities with similar programs for a comparison of size and collection depth in the degree area. Special attention is placed on the areas of faculty research, publication, and reading habits to ensure that the library collection can support the faculty as well as the students in the new degree program. Interlibrary loan (ILL) requests and SFX reports are also analyzed by library staff to determine what journals are being requested that are not owned by the library.
The library reviews a list of current faculty publications to determine if the library owns the journals where faculty publish. This is accomplished by running a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed from SCOPUS to a LibGuide for easy review. Unfortunately, arts and humanities are not covered by the SCOPUS database. If the library does not own a publication that contains a faculty-authored work, ILL requests, electronic availability and analysis of whether or not it is a core title are conducted in order to determine if the journal should be purchased for the library. ILL request reports are retrieved from ILLiad. The titles requested, who requested them, and when requests were made are all considered. ILL reports can show if there is demand for a particular title. UTD library wants to add titles with a demonstrated demand. UTD uses SFX as a link resolver. An A–Z list for all available periodical titles links to the catalog record provided by the MarcIt service. Since entire electronic journal issues are not available through ILL, reports from SFX are also used to determine which electronic journals are being requested that are not available to the UTD community. Sometimes the requested titles are available in print, but a heavily requested title could indicate the need for a new purchase.
OUTSIDE TOOLS USED IN ANALYSIS
Several other tools are useful for journal analysis in various subject areas, including Journal Citation Reports and the Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC) Collection Analysis. Journal Citation Reports (JCR) can be used as a tool in journal analysis for social sciences and sciences. While JCR's methodology is sometimes questioned due to scope of fields covered, its English-language focus, and the effect of journal size (the number of articles published annually) on results, it is still a helpful tool. JCR provides impact factors, which measures the frequency that an average article in each journal is cited in a particular year. Impact factors allow for the comparison of journals within a discipline. Impact factors for a journal change over time, and journals can be added or deleted. OCLC Collection Analysis allows for comparison of e-journal and print collection holdings in OCLC between two libraries. However, in order to conduct this comparison, the requesting library needs the permission of the other library, which must also subscribe to OCLC Collection Analysis. These comparisons can be helpful, but require a lot of time.
Some disciplines have reference works or subject indices that can be used for serial collection analysis. For instance, the Cabell's directories provide article acceptance rate information in several disciplines. Analyzing the title lists of online indices can supply a list of journal titles that might be helpful in a new degree program. The index often provides information about type of publication and peer review status. Internet searches can provide surprising results when conducting serials analysis. Typing a field name and “top journals” can lead to specific titles, blogs, articles discussing journal rankings and websites discussing journals in a field. Ulrich's Periodical Directory online provides the ability to search by subject. Results can then be refined by several categories, such as online availability, peer review and language. Serials Directory, provided through EBSCOhost, provides a similar service.
CREATION OF SERIAL COLLECTION REPORT AND ASSESSMENT
When investigating serials required for a new degree program, the library places information gleaned from the different sources above into a single spreadsheet for analysis and comparisons. Once the library has completed the analysis, a report containing titles owned and available in the proposed degree field is created. Library staff then determine if titles need to be added in the first three years of the new degree, and these new journals are ranked by core status and demand. The library also provides a cost estimate in the report and since the state requires that a cost estimate be included, the Library adds the information to the documentation it submits. There can be push-back from faculty members to make the cost minimal.
If the degree program is approved, assessment of the collection continues. While faculty members submit the degree proposals, the experts in the new degree field are often not yet hired. Therefore, the list of journals to be added might need to be tweaked in coming years. New faculty members might have different research interests or curricular needs. Communication with these new faculty members is key. Many of the same tools used in the initial analysis are used in the assessment process and titles that are not being used as expected are eliminated.
CLOSING OBSERVATIONS
There is a shift in faculty expectations away from journal titles and toward articles, regardless of where the article is published. The use of databases as a starting place for searching is also diminishing. While ILL is a tool used extensively by some, better marketing is needed so that it can be more widely used. Even if a serial title is considered to be a core title, if it is only available in print, it is not usually added to the collection. For best assessment results, librarians need to track all usage of print and electronic journals. The library would consider cutting titles if they are not being utilized by the population at hand. Include documentation from assessment in every report submitted, since statistics are especially helpful when speaking to administrators. Seeking out journals to support interdisciplinary degrees is fun, but it is not easy.
QUESTIONS
A question was posed as to how “Big Deal” packages fit into the serials analysis process at UTD. Ellen Safley has found that many databases available through consortium contain embargoed titles, so while the campus has access to a title there might have to be evaluation of the newest content. Consortia-accessed content is counted as owned for the analysis process outlined; however, many publisher packages are priced too high for UTD to subscribe. The use of SCOPUS as a tool for serials analysis was mentioned and Safley agreed that it was a great tool for certain disciplines. The last question posed to Safley regarded open access titles and how they fit into the serials analysis process at UTD. Short run or dead titles are avoided if possible. Journals found in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) are available in SFX and in UTD's catalog. However, links to open access journals can be problematic.