Abstract
Current economic challenges have had a profound impact on collection development, as a good budget has become one which merely remains flat in comparison to the many budgets which have been severely cut. While inflation has steadily eroded collection budgets for many years, the Great Recession exacerbated economic woes as both academic endowments and state tax revenues declined drastically. The Health Sciences Libraries of the University of Southern California address these difficult times by communicating and collaborating with colleagues, customers, and vendors.