Serials provision policy

1. General strategies

Library strategies for serials provision are based on the following assumptions:

• The application of Information Technology is forcing a restructuring of the academic serials publishing industry and libraries must respond accordingly
• the spiralling costs of hardcopy serials (10% or more every year) has demanded a rethink of current acquisition policies
• the Library is reducing the size of its scholarly print journal collection but in an incremental manner
• full text electronic journals will be preferred, where available, and equivalent hard copy subscriptions cancelled
• interlibrary loan will be used where appropriate
• substantial training will be necessary in the use of navigational and search tools
• the Library depends on consultative mechanisms with colleges in realigning serial service provision
• the outcome of the consultative process is a serials provision profile for both teaching and research which is reassessed annually against agreed performance indicators

2. Serials used by undergraduates and coursework masters students

The Library's policy is to retain a core collection of serials that support undergraduate and coursework masters programs.

The Library will continue to subscribe to or acquire serial titles in print which are not available in electronic format.

The Library will subscribe to services which provide full text access to serials in electronic format if they correlate closely with Macquarie's academic profile. Examples of services are available through the Library are Infotrac Web and Project MUSE.

In most instances the Library will not renew subscriptions to paper copies of serial titles which have been made available in full text electronic format.

3. Serials required to support the research effort of the University

The Library subscribes to services which provide full text access to serials in electronic format where they correlate closely with Macquarie's research profile. Examples of services which are available through the Library are Elsevier's ScienceDirect and Academic Press IDEAL. In most instances print versions of serials available on such services are not subscribed to.

Academic staff and postgraduate students by research are encouraged to access Ingenta at Macquarie to acquire journal articles. Of particular interest is the Table of Contents service that sends email alerts when new issues of titles are indexed. Training courses in the use of Ingenta are conducted regularly through the Information & Technology Training Unit.

The Document Supply Unit makes use of both commercial document delivery services and traditional interlibrary loan sources in order to deliver an efficient interlibrary loan service.

4. Requests for new Serial subscriptions supporting research

New titles requested by the Faculty to support strategic areas of research will be purchased if not accessible through Ingenta, subject to funding availability.