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Collection Review 2020: Details

Introduction

The Libraries is continuously working toward alignment of services with the University's academic and research mission by:

  • aligning Libraries staff through our academic engagement reorganization;
  • aligning service value through the implementation of Key Performance Indicators and the Balanced Scorecard;
  • aligning our collections with the teaching, learning, and research needs of the faculty and students.

Over the coming months the libraries will be undertaking a review of our journals and database subscriptions. The review will help us identify those subscriptions we will not be renewing in the 2020/2021 fiscal year.

The Context

  1. Increased subscription Cost - Electronic resources continue to consume a greater and greater proportion of the library budgets, to the exclusion of other content and activities. While the Canadian Consumer Price Index has averaged less than 2% over the past decade, commercial publishers are routinely imposing annual subscription increases of between 5% and 7%.
  2. Oligopoly in publishing - In addition to unsustainable rising costs of subscriptions set by publishers, mergers and consolidation have created an oligopoly in publishing - fewer companies control more and more of the content, and thus the price.
  3. Hold-steady budgets - The University and the Libraries cannot sustain these subscription cost increases.

This situation is not unique to UManitoba. Many academic libraries across North America are also struggling to maintain a robust array of subscriptions and many have already responded to outdated subscription models and unsustainable subscription costs. A recent example is the University of California's cancellation of Elsevier.


  • UM Libraries is continually aligning collection resources and support with the teaching, learning, and research needs of faculties and students.
  • UM Libraries has worked through consortia to leverage greater purchasing power for more than 20 years, and we will continue to do so.  This has resulted in limiting journal price increases negotiated through those agreements to 3-5%.
  • UM Libraries has developed inter-library loan agreements with other institutions and consortia to facilitate on-demand provision of research materials.
  • UM Libraries has staff and resources to support researchers in their efforts to open their research, including knowledge mobilization support (moving available knowledge from formal research into active use) and MSpace.

The Libraries will be conducting a review of our current journal and database subscriptions. This includes:

  • Looking at usage data and availability in open access outlets
  • Consulting with the University of Manitoba community
  • Deciding how we can continue to support the academic and research mission of the University while working within our budget.
  • Following up with ongoing assessment of unmet demands to monitor our decisions and adjust as necessary.



  • Consider new ways of publishing research:  don’t give away your copyright; and, publish, review and provide editorial work for ethical and innovative open access outlets. Your librarian can help you.  
  • Engage in conversations with librarians about the scholarly publishing issues identified and your teaching and research needs in relation to the Libraries’ collections review.
  • Deposit your scholarship in MSpace and Dataverse so it is openly available to other researchers who don’t have access to journal subscriptions.