Budget Crunch

The library's going through a budget crunch this year (along with everyone else) and among other things, I've been told I have to cut a rather large percentage from my serials budget.

Problem: my budget only has 5 serials left. Most computer science stuff is available online in some form or other, and our database coverage is pretty good. And a year ago, when we weren't in crunch condition, I conscientiously went through my journal list item by item, and cancelled everything that we were getting in some other form. Leaving myself with absolutely zero wiggle room this year, and I'm pretty sure every item on that list is the favoured stepchild of some faculty member or other, or they wouldn't have lasted this long.

Not many sensible ways I can see to decide which to drop. I could do it by Volume (keep the favourite of the faculty member who yells the loudest) or, as a colleague suggested, alphabetically. Being a computer science type possibly I should come up with something fancier - a fibbonacci sequence algorithm? Not that anyone would notice... there's only five of them. For several months after I was first given the computer science funds I didn't even notice that I had a serials budget.

In a way it might have been smarter to cut less last year. That's a side effect of how our budgets are allocated: the base amount is what was spent last fiscal year, with increases or cuts made on top of that. Another side effect is that we have an odd practice of spending as quickly as possible - having invoices sent so we can pay them months ahead of time - all so the money will be spent before that all important fiscal year-end date. I wonder how much the University loses in interest because of that.