The Case for Context in Journal Evaluations

Abstract

When University of Wisconsin–La Crosse was faced with a pandemic-related 20% reduction to the library’s collections budget two months into the 2021 fiscal year, it meant painful decisions needed to be made about the library’s journal subscriptions. To accomplish this task, librarians surveyed faculty and instructional staff to generate a list of journals essential to teaching and research. Librarians analyzed the subscription status, access information, and usage statistics of the titles listed on the survey. Their findings reinforced the importance of gathering qualitative data from users to inform collection decisions, and the danger in relying too heavily on usage statistics as a marker of a journal’s value.

Keywords:

• Budget cut
• cancelation project
• database access
• faculty survey
• journal evaluations
• journal subscriptions
• qualitative data
• usage statistics