K-State Libraries identify subscription titles that will be discontinued by Sarah McGreer Hoyt As announced on May 9, K-State Libraries are making additional subscription cuts. After careful evaluation, the K-State Libraries have posted the current titles of resources under consideration for discontinuation and are seeking feedback from K-State faculty by August 15. A form is available online. These reductions are in response to the inflation in subscription costs that the K-State Libraries face on an annual basis. "Even though we negotiate for the best rates possible, increases in the cost of our subscription materials accumulate year after year," said Lori Goetsch, dean of libraries. "For example, from 2010 to 2016, package prices from just five major publishers increased by nearly a half-million dollars, or close to 25 percent." "We recognize that summer is not an ideal time to ask faculty for feedback," said Mira Greene, head of content development and acquisitions. "But our subscription cycles do not align with the academic year. We have to make our difficult decisions during the summer months." Faculty can help with usage data Looking forward, K-State faculty members can help preserve items they value by following a few steps to ensure K-State Libraries have accurate usage data. For example, instead of uploading a PDF file of a journal article to K-State Online, instructors can share a permalink - an unchanging, stable hyperlink - with their students. Then, when students use the link to access the material online at the source (e.g., in a database or other subscription-based service) the Libraries will see the true demand for that content. In other words, instead of the course generating a single instance of access that would be recorded when the instructor downloaded the PDF, dozens or even hundreds of instances of access are created when the students click the permalink. | 
