The Canadian Dollar versus the Collection: How University Libraries Are CopingNicole Eva (with David Scott)Librarians, University of Lethbridge

CAD/USD Exchange Rate, 2012-2017

Source: www.xe.com/currencychartsRetrieved March 23, 2017

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Research Questions

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How has the decrease in value of the CAD against the USD affected Canadian academic libraries?

What other factors are putting strain on libraries’ acquisitions budgets?

How are libraries responding to these budgetary pressures?

What potential solutions to alleviate these pressures exist?

Research Timeline

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March 7, 2016 Ethics approval received

Survey invitations sent to all 58 English-speaking CRKN member institutions

March 23, 2016 Survey closed; 33 responses received

April 6 – May 2, 2016 Telephone interviews conducted with 22 survey

respondents

Survey Respondents (n=33)

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02468

101214

BritishColumbia

PrairieProvinces

Ontario AtlanticProvinces &

Quebec

Num

ber o

f Ins

titut

ions

Survey Responses by Region

Annual Collections Budgets of Survey Respondents

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0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Less than$500,000

$500,000 to$1 million

$1 million to$2 million

$2 million to$5 million

$5 million to$10 million

More than$10 million

Num

ber o

f Ins

titut

ions

Annual Collections Budget

Five-Year Trends in Annual Collections Budgets of Survey Respondents

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46% (15)

21% (7)

33% (11)Increased

Remained Stable

Decreased

Percentage of Collections Budgets Allocated toE-Resource Subscriptions

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02468

10121416

60 - 69% 70 - 79% 80 - 89% 90 - 100%

Num

ber o

f Ins

titut

ions

Percentage of Annual Collections Budget

Surveyed Libraries' Responses to the Decreasing Value of the Dollar

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0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Additional funding from external donors

Additional funding from institution

Cut other expenses (e.g., ILL, supplies)

Decreased staffing

Negotiated lower costs with vendors

Purchased fewer monographs

Cancelled database subscriptions

Cancelled serial subscriptions

Percentage of Libraries (n = 33)

Yes

No

E-Resource Cancellations Identified Most Frequently by Survey Respondents

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0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Book Review IndexAnthrosource

Duke University PressINSPEC

LexisNexis AcademicWeb of Science

Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)BIOSIS citation index

ALPSP Learned Journals / ALJC-SwetsInstitute of Physics JournalsCambridge University Press

EruditCAIRN

Survey Respondents' Perceptions of their Library’s Response to the Decrease in Value of the Dollar

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6% (2)

52% (17)30% (10)

12% (4)

Minor

Moderate

Major

Extreme

Interviews

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22 institutions of varying sizes 67% of survey respondents

28% of English-speaking CRKN members

Representing 7 provinces

Size distribution similar to survey total

Interview Highlights

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Predictability important for budgetary planning Monograph funding an area of concern Further e-resource cancellations very likely Other financial pressures

Budget cuts

Program expansion without increased funding

Inflation of e-resource subscriptions

Regular Price Increases

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“[i]t irritates me that big publishers feel entitled to big paycheques.”

Trends in Cutbacks and Cancellations

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Monographs are hardest hit Impacts some subjects more than others

Individual serial subscriptions rather than breaking “big deals” “…we can sort of see that we’re perpetuating this

cycle, but we haven’t found a good way to get out of it.”

To date, mainly “low-hanging fruit” High-impact cancellations often restored

Extent of Cancellations

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Ranged from <5% e-resource budget to >20% of total acquisitions budget

$ $$$

The Cancellation Process

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Cost, usage, cost-per-use CPU ‘flags’ ranged from $5-$25

Relevance to programming Platform usability Publisher stability Unique content Discoverability Peer-reviewed content

Nothing is Sacred…

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“Nothing is off limits anymore” “Everything is on the table”

Solutions to the Exchange Rate Problem

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Predictability is key Purchasing US funds

Carry forward unspent funds

Vendors bill in CDN$ or agree on fixed exchange rate

A Groundswell for Change?

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“It’s definitely raised the profile of the library allocations to a much greater degree than it ever was before”

“I think it has raised the issue to the point that people understand that it’s a systemic, structural problem”

…or maybe not.

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“I honestly don’t see a whole lot changing” “My fear is that it will be the status quo” “I don’t think they [faculty & administrators] are

all that well informed at all” “They [faculty] haven’t thought about it at all; it

has not hit their radar in any way”

The Myths of Open Access

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Predatory publishers / general lack of quality Article Processing Charges Unaware of Green OA options

The Deeper Issue

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“As libraries, we have a huge opportunity right now…. We can leverage the problematic exchange rate to our advantage to have a conversation about the unsustainability of the current scholarly communication model. My fear is that everything will be too caught up in the US exchange rate, and we as a community will spend too much time talking about that, and not enough time leveraging that opportunity to talk about what I think the real issue is, which is the scholarly communication crisis.”

The Deeper Issue

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“I think that the danger is that…we perhaps have put too much emphasis on the exchange rate.”

The Deeper Issue

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“Even if the dollar rises a bit in the next year, the structural problem is still there, and therefore, we have to look at developing a sustainable approach in-house, as well as collaborating at the provincial and national level on strategies that we can work on collaboratively to make the environment more sustainable for all of us.”

Solutions for Scholarly Publishing?

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Faculty engagement/education – copyright Administration – tenure & promotion Government lobbying – OA legislation

Tri-Council OA Policy

International, interconsortial collaboration “Quite frankly, we’re a drop in their [vendors’]

bucket.”

The Future

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CC BY-SA 3.0 Nick Youngson -http://nyphotographic.com/

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Scott, D. R. & Eva, N. (2016). The Canadian dollar versus the collection: How Canadian university libraries are coping. Partnership: The Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research, 11(2). http://dx.doi.org/10.21083/partnership.v11i2.3771;http://hdl.handle.net/10133/4785

Thank you for your time.Are there any questions?