The University of Ottawa (U of O) is planning to cut nearly 5,000 academic journals from its collection to make up for a budget shortfall of roughly $1.5 million. The cuts are expected to take effect by the end of this year, according to a release from the university.
Jules Blais, a U of O professor of biology and environmental toxicology, started an online petition to preserve the academic subscriptions. The petition currently has more than 3,000 signatures on change.org.
“This is a major cut,” Blais said. “Last year [the university] cut a number of journals that were less likely to be accessed by students and by researchers, but this year they’re cutting two of the major academic publishers.”
Blais said he felt the cuts were made without any “proper consideration for what people need.”
One of the primary concerns, he said, is the amount of resources that will be left for students as a result of having fewer journals available.
“I think that the students will be disproportionately affected by this because they’re the ones doing the most active research . . . I think that professors might be able to cope a little more easily,” Blais said.
Jeff Bradley, president of the Graduate Students’ Association in criminology at the U of O, said students, especially in social sciences, rely on academic journals for assignments. He said he signed the petition to preserve journal subscriptions.
“We require these resources to move our projects forward and have access to the most up-to-date literature and evidence,” Bradley said. “My hope is that students will be able to access this information through alternative means like Scholars Portal or other data sharing software. Having these journals removed may save the university money, but it takes away from academia and sharing of ideas.”
Jennifer Dekker, president of the Association of Professors of the University of Ottawa (APUO), said there are several alternatives the university could consider instead of cutting journal subscriptions to make up for a budget issue.
She said the budget for “outside consultants’ fees, or travel fees” is $96 million, and the university could “easily just take $1.5 million in those items and give it over to the library.”
“The [U of O] just went into debt [and] just borrowed $200 million to build new buildings on campus, so they could probably take some of that money and use it for the library budget,” Dekker said.
She said the best solution to avoid journal cuts would be for the university to “re-calibrate” its budget.
According to a release from U of O librarian Leslie Weir, major academic subscriptions to Taylor & Francis and Springer will be canceled.
Weir wrote that the cuts would affect the university’s “ability to support research and teaching and may provoke media attention.”
Carleton University faced a similar situation in the last academic year. In April 2016, the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) released a statement protesting proposed budget cuts to Carleton’s library, which would have amounted to about $250,000 and reduced access to journal subscriptions.
However, the 2016-17 operating budget included an increase to library funding instead.
