Collections at risk: Revisiting serial cancellations in academic libraries

In 1993, Tina E. Chrzastowski and Karen A. Schmidt published a longitudinal study of serial cancellations from five midwestern academic research libraries.(1) The study found that actual title cancellation overlap was small (4.3%), meaning that many unique titles were being cancelled. A profile for an ''at-risk'' serial title, one most likely to be cancelled, was also determined. The titles most often cancelled were English-language titles in the sciences having a higher-than-average subscription price. The present study builds on the original research, adding two more years of cancellation data as well as serial order data. Results show that the rate of cancellations accelerated and that cancellation overlap increased by 55 percent in the two years following the original study. Science titles are still most likely to be cancelled, and less likely to be ordered. Also, the cost of serial cancellations in the sciences is not balanced by orders in the sciences, which are for fewer, lower-priced journals, in contrast with serials in the social sciences and humanities. Overlap in serial orders was less than expected.