Weeding Projects: Databases

Just as we do with our journals, we also review our electronic database subscriptions each year to ensure that our holdings meet the needs of our students and faculty. Many times, vendors and publishers implement outrageous increases to subscription rates at the time of renewal, which forces us to reassess our need for certain products. While we do our best to maintain an electronic collection that supports research and inquiry, our flat collections budget does not allow us to retain every resource every year.

We are reviewing database subscriptions that are up for renewal in January 2018, paying close attention to:

• usage statistics
• relevance to curriculum and course offerings
• relevance to student and faculty research
• percent increase that the vendor has implemented at the time of renewal
• duplication or similarity in content with other databases in our holdings

Following a similar process to what we do with the January renewals, we will begin reviewing database subscriptions that are up for renewal in July 2018, paying close attention to:

• usage statistics
• relevance to curriculum and course offerings
• relevance to student and faculty research
• percent increase that the vendor has implemented at the time of renewal
• duplication or similarity in content with other databases in our holdings
• library budget capabilities