Acquisitions Institute, Timberline Lodge, May 16, 2004
We are all keenly aware that serials prices continue to grow faster than the rate of inflation, stretching library budgets this and every year. Online access has also increased to the point that our serials environment is a confusing place for users. One of the subscriptions causing frustration for users at Oregon State University Libraries is the IEEE Proceedings Order Plan (POP). Our subscription does not include access to online journals, nor to all of the conference proceedings, and the IEEE interface does not allow us to limit it to our holdings.
This presentation describes our evaluation of our engineering serials collection (journals, proceedings and various standing orders) for conversion to electronic-only. It includes a review of other institutions’ experiences with electronic-only, analysis of our current subscriptions, investigation into electronic-only availability and costs, and discussions with engineering faculty on their needs. We hope electronic-only pricing will help bring the full IEEE Electronic Library within our budget. We believe this process will enhance access to our engineering collection, improve library service to the faculty and students of the College of Engineering, and provide a model for electronic-only collections for other subject areas and other libraries to use.