While we have a small and dynamic print collection, our focus over the years has been to deliver content to our user community via our Website.  With our user community spread across several locations, providing a digital collection makes good business sense. In fact, in early 2010, we discovered that our electronic resource collection surpassed our print offerings.

Building our electronic collection, in particular, our eJournals is an ongoing task and each year we take the required time to ensure that our Institutional subscriptions reflect the Center’s medical and research activities. In light of the current economic landscape and a fixed budget, we want to deliver targeted and valued information that will support our researchers, physicians, nurses, and healthcare professionals in their day-to-day decisions that often revolve around a patient’s quality of care.

How do we keep the MSKCC Journal Collection relevant? We review and analyze this collection throughout the year, making decisions to cancel, renew, or start new subscriptions.  We look at a myriad of factors when cancelling a title and go beyond just usage metrics, examining which user segments are using the title, their size in comparison to the full text articles accessed, if this is a key title for them, and if this is a new or critical research area for the Institution.  We also note the popularity of these journals among other Medical Libraries to know whether or not we could obtain a specific article for our users via ILLiad Document Delivery.  Based on the journal subscription cost, it does not always make sense to subscribe when it is determined to be less expensive to purchase the article or obtain the article directly from the publisher based on a pay-per-view model.  We also take into consideration whether any of our authors publish in these titles as well as pay attention to what journal articles they are citing.

As we continue to focus on providing a targeted eJournal collection, we also look to our user community to let us know; when a title no longer holds value and when a new title should be considered for inclusion.  Working within our budget, our attention is on providing access to published content that will have the greatest impact on our users.  MSK Library users are encouraged to share their feedback to help us acquire, cancel, or renew journal subscriptions.  We look forward to hearing from you!

Donna Gibson
Director of Library Services