A&I RIP Survey

Andria McGrathSenior Information Specialist King’s College London

At your institution:

have you already

cancelled, or made

the decision to

cancel, any A&I

databases?

22 responses

46%

36%

18%

Yes

No

Not currently

26%

37%

37%

At your institution:

are you

considering the

cancellation of

any (or any more)

A&I databases?

19 responses

Yes

No

Not currently

Which databases have been/will be/may be cancelled?

ABIX Abstracts - an Australian news index AMED ASSIA Beilstein Crossfire BHI (British Humanities Index [x2] BIOSIS [x3] CAB Abstracts DAAI (Design and Applied Arts Index )

Which databases - 2

Emerald Computer Abstracts International Film & Television Literature Index Index to Theses INSPEC [x3 + 1 considered, but rejected] Leisure, Recreation and Tourism Abstracts MLA International Bibliography NTIS (National Technical Information Service)

Which databases - 3

Philospher's IndexRILM abstracts of Music LiteratureRSC Analytical AbstractsScopusShort Story IndexStandards ExpertUrban Studies Abstracts

Drivers for cancellation

Budgetary restraintsranked 1st or 2nd in 9 cases1st – 3, 2nd – 6

Available by other meansranked 1st or 2nd in 6 cases1st – 2, 2nd – 4

Low usageranked 1st or 2nd in 4 cases

Drivers for cancellation - 2

No longer considered useful ranked 1st in 3 cases

Minority interestnot ranked 1st or 2nd

Other – 2“Contracts restrict what we might actually consider.”“Money is the main driver for cancellation as opposed to change of use/ something cheaper/ better for free.”

Who made the decisions?

Research staff – 4 Teaching staff – 4 Senior Information service/library staff – 10 Subject specialists/librarians – 10 “We consulted with academic staff via

library reps”“Academics still like the A & I databases”

Databases replaced by alternatives

Biosis – CAB Abstracts and Medline CAB Abstracts – EBSCO Environment

Complete NTIS – most US government reports are

now free on the web. Index to Theses – ETHOSINSPEC – CiteSeer and GoogleScholar

Other comments

Money is the main incentiveAcademics have pushed us hard to

prove lack of useDecision may yet be rescinded (Scopus)As credit crunch continues – more A&I

services will be vulnerableFree services like Google Scholar don’t

give ‘related records’, references, etc.

Priority to keep primary journal subs going – may force another A&I database cancellation

OK this year – but may change in futureOK this year – but will be looking

carefully at usage stats – users demand immediate access to full text