Report: “Case Western Reserve University Libraries Seek External Review After Low Funding, Ranking”

From The Observer (Student Newspaper at CWRU):

Due to the fluctuation in the Case Western Reserve University library budget and the rising cost of library materials, over 900 journal titles in the past six years have been cancelled from subscription. Due to their small budget, CWRU libraries to rank 107 out of the 114 libraries in the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). The Faculty Senate Committee on University Libraries (FSCUL) is seeking support from the Faculty Senate and the Office of the Provost to review the library funding system.

Since 2010, Kelvin Smith Library (KSL) has conducted two large scale journal cancellations for the College of Arts and Sciences, Case School of Engineering and the Weatherhead School of Management, while the CWRU School of Law library has also cancelled more than 600 journal titles. The cancellations were intended to partly offset the impact of an estimated five percent increase in content acquisition cost, in a time when the overall library budget was increased at less than two percent per year on average.

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The limited budget available for content acquisition has a direct impact on students and faculty. CWRU libraries rely heavily on OhioLINK to compensate for their current collections. OhioLINK allows users to access books from OhioLINK-participating institutions by ordering books from other regional libraries to be delivered to CWRU libraries. The delivery process usually takes around five days.

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