Evaluating Big Deals
Beth Bernhardt, UNC-Greensboro
Due to major budget cuts over the past three years UNC Greensboro has had to look closely at cutting its ‘Big Deal’ journal collections. After gathering use statistics, pricing, impact factors, and other journal information, a spreadsheet was constructed to compare the library’s Big Deals. By examining parameters such as total cost, total use, cost per use, and cost per title, the library was able to determine the cost of subscribing to high-use journals and identify which collections could be cut. This process was helpful in showing to administrators which Big Deal is right for the University and which could be eliminated. Other organizations are now using this model to evaluate their Big Deals.