What happens when your library receives unexpected news of a significant collections budget cut? How does a severely understaffed department even begin to identify over half a million dollars in savings within three months? With a looming transition to Revenue-Based Budgeting, as well as cuts to the Department of Education and other avenues for research funding, Clemson University Libraries faced a crisis of cutting five percent of the healthy collections budget. The presenters will outline their framework for conducting collections assessment and identifying within a condensed timeframe. In addition to frequent team communication and collaboration with departmental liaison librarians, strategies included utilizing a Renewal Decision Matrix developed by the Associate Dean for Collections & Discovery and a shared Serials Review spreadsheet that calculated cost per use for each resource. Ultimately, over one hundred serial titles and nearly 30 databases were identified for cancellation.
