Making Collection Management Manageable: A Three-Phase Approach to an Annual Subscription Review

Annual subscription reviews are a normal part of many libraries’ operations, butthis process is time consuming and can be particularly challenging for institutions withsmall e-resources staffs. The approach pursued by the Michael Schwartz Library atCleveland State University includes strategies other libraries may find helpful inmoving beyond cost per use in their reviews. In early fiscal year 2019, the MichaelSchwartz Library identified a need to systematically review all subscriptions annually.The library operates with a flat budget and cancellations are often required to manageinflation. Previously, subscription reviews were in response to immediate needs (e.g.budget cuts, changes in consortium offerings, etc.). Largely due to staffing and timeconstraints, examining the entire corpus of subscriptions was outside of the scope ofpast reviews. A new subscription review process was developed to prepare the library tomake data-driven decisions regarding cancellations for the next fiscal year. Themethodology developed for the new subscription review consisted of three phases witheach phase narrowing the number of resources considered for cancellation. The firstphase was an evaluation of resource performance from an acquisitions perspective andincorporated cost per use and annual price increases. In the next phase, subjectlibrarians evaluated resources in their respective disciplines based on several criteriaand were required to rank resources in order of retention priority. In the final phase,faculty were surveyed on content quality, frequency of use in instruction, and othercriteria for those resources deemed “cancellation eligible.”