Rising prices of periodicals have placed increasing pressures on library budgets worldwide. Will electronic publishing and the creation of consortia ease these pressures, helping libraries maintain-and expand-their traditional levels of service?

Serial Crisis

With more than 53,000 monographs and 900 journal subscriptions, the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) library is one of the finest scientific libraries in Europe. The collection is particularly strong in the fields of high energy physics, condensed matter physics and mathematics. Our monographs and journals also cover other fields that are integral parts of ICTP's research and training activities.

To ensure that scientists have access to the most current material in the easiest and fastest possible way, in 1994 the library launched a wide-ranging initiative to automate its services. The most important result of this effort has been our expanding access to electronic journals and databases. Centre researchers can now stroll through ICTP's open-shelf library at their leisure or browse through the web at warp speed in search of the information they are seeking.

Moreover, readily available printers and copiers enable visitors to make and then take home 'hard copies' of the materials they need, which helps them continue their work far beyond the walls of the ICTP Main Building in Trieste.

Little wonder that our visitors constantly praise the library as one of the Centre's most valuable resources. Some course directors, in fact, include 'library time' in their activity schedules so that participants don't feel they have to steal time from their day-to-day commitments to take advantage of the Centre's wealth of monographs, journals and electronic information.

Like other scientific libraries throughout the world, however, the ICTP library currently faces financial pressures marked by steep annual increases in the price of journal subscriptions. These price increases have averaged between 10 and 13 percent a year for science, technology and medicine (or, as librarians call them, STM) journals over the past decade.

For the ICTP library, the financial pressures created by this chronic escalation in subscription fees have been compounded by inflation and unfavourable exchange rates. The latter further drain the library's purchasing power because most scientific publications are priced in US dollars or Sterling pounds. In total, the library spends about 80 percent of its annual budget on subscription renewals.

Publishers justify their increases by citing rising production costs. They point out that journals have increased their page counts as scientific output grows and new features are introduced. At the same time, the number of subscribers to scientific journals is declining, partially in response to rising prices. As a result, increases in production costs must be spread over a smaller subscriber base.

Price increases imposed by non-profit publishers have not been as steep as those imposed by commercial publishers. But that provides little comfort to libraries. A majority of the world's most prestigious scientific journals are owned by commercial publishers-for example, Elsevier, Kluwer and Wiley-which have become bigger and more powerful with each new take-over of smaller publishing houses. The monopoly effect created by this trend has pushed prices even higher. Meanwhile, scientists, who may be increasingly reluctant to personally subscribe to prestigious but expensive journals in their fields, are more determined than ever to publish their papers in them. As long as a journal remains prestigious, libraries will be pressured to subscribe regardless of the price.

The ICTP library has pursued several different strategies to address the 'serial crisis.' In 1993, the Centre cancelled 35 titles, carefully determining that 27 of these titles could be found nearby at the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) library and that the other eight titles were duplicate copies available through the University of Trieste's Department of Theoretical Physics. Nevertheless, for the first time in the Centre's history, the library had cut back its journal subscription list. We all knew once the first retrenchment decision was made, it would be much easier to do it again.

In fact, the following year, another 64 titles were cancelled. This time additional criteria were adopted. Not only did we investigate whether the journal was located at SISSA and other scientific institutions in Trieste, but we discontinued titles that were not strictly related to ICTP's current or future programmes.

In 1996, on-going financial pressures spurred the creation of the ICTP/SISSA Library Co-ordination Committee, which was established to 'co-ordinate' acquisitions and cancellations of periodicals in the two institutions. The goal was to maximise the availability of journal titles on the Miramare campus and, at the same time, prevent unnecessary and costly duplications. Both institutions agreed not to cancel a journal subscription before discussing their decision with the other. They also agreed to inform each other of new acquisitions.

For the thousands of scientists who have participated in ICTP's research and training activities during the past 35 years, the Centre's periodical collection has been a constant source of intellectual nourishment. The library has been able to extend its reach by tapping into inter-library-loan and document-delivery services. As a result, the impact of rising cost of periodicals-and the cutbacks in our serial collection-have been blunted by our ability to turn to other avenues to meet our researchers' needs.

And our efforts have not stopped there. For example, we have explored the possibility of joining a consortium of libraries that are willing to share costly electronic licensing fees.

Whether such arrangements are financially and logistically feasible remains to be seen. However, if this strategy proves viable, it should help us maintain our high level of service while freeing space for other essential services. To advance this promising alternative, we join other libraries around the world in urging publishers to re-examine their subscription fees to electronic journals, which in principle can be distributed more cheaply than paper editions.

The journal display in the ICTP Library

SEARCH AND DISCOVER

How many of you have visited the ICTP Library, sat before a PC, called up one of our databases and discovered that your article has been cited by a colleague on the other side of the world?

This is just one small, yet highly personal, example of what modern technology can do for you. No more cramped spaces in the back of the library; no more sitting on the floor in a dark corner of the room; no more flipping through hundreds of pages with tiny characters; no more wondering if your hard work and talent goes unnoticed.

Today, with a simple click of your mouse, you can save precious time examining reference and bibliographical material from the comfort of our library.

CD-Roms databases available at the ICTP library include:

Science Citation Index

Provides access to current bibliographic information and cited references.

INSPEC - Physics Abstracts

Contains citations, with abstracts, to physics literature worldwide.

MathSci and Zentralblatt-MATH

Present citations of the world's current mathematical literature.

INIS

Produces bibliographic references and lists availability of scientific literature published world-wide on peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

Journal Citation Reports - Science Edition

Offers a means of determining the relative importance of science journals within subject categories.

For additional information, visit the ICTP library homepage at http://library.ictp.trieste.it.

Maria Fasanella
Head of the ICTP Library

Back to Contents Forward to Dateline

Home