The traditional printed book or monograph is still the most convenient way to publish an extended treatment of a subject, and is likely to continue serving this role well into the future. Because of the very many individual titles needed, books require the most time and labor to select, acquire, and process for use; they also consume most of the physical storage area in the libraries. Currently, however, only a relatively small portion of the libraries' materials budget is available for book purchases, due to the steeply rising cost of journals and other serial subscriptions.

A monographic series is defined as a set of individually published books with a common series title, sometimes numbered, and typically with an editor-in-chief having overall responsibility for the series. The individual books are generally self-contained treatments of the broader subject common to the series. The volumes are purchased individually as they appear. When it is important that all volumes be received, the libraries will place a standing order for the series. In other cases, selected volumes may be received, sometimes as part of the approval process, which carries a much more advantageous discount than is given for standing orders, because of the complex nature of distribution costs.

A serial is defined as a publication in any medium, issued in successive parts bearing numeric or chronological designations, and intended to be continued indefinitely. Usually these are available by subscriptions which continue until canceled, thus representing ongoing financial commitments. As is now well known, in recent years prices of academic journals have been increasing far beyond the general rate of inflation and far beyond the fiscal capacity of the university to sustain. The extent to which this has happened means that the ratio of funds spent on serials and books is overwhelmingly in favor of serials, even though the numbers of each are diminishing. In fact, if left unchecked, the cost of serials regularly threatens to consume more than 100% of available funds within a short period. This represents a crisis common to the entire world of academic research libraries.

Historically, it has been the policy of the libraries to support all disciplines and programs with those serials (and other materials) that the faculty and the library determined were needed, and to maintain serial publications on an indefinite basis. Selection criteria included some or all of the following:

1. A high degree of relevance to the disciplines and sub-disciplines in the curriculum or the research specialties of faculty;
   
   
2. The reputation of the title, particularly as evidenced by refereed selection of articles for publication, or sponsorship by professional associations;
   
   
3. Serious and useful treatment of subjects of interest to the educational process;
   
   
4. Indexing of the contents, or citation of articles in indexes, abstracts, or other bibliographic sources.

In consequence of the proliferation of specialized journals, and the steep rise of subscription prices (in many cases to outrageous levels) additional factors related to price and to alternative means of access have to be considered:

1. How many people would a proposed subscription be likely to serve?
   
   
2. What is the cost of the title and what is its likely annual rate of inflation?
   
   
3. Is the title already available in metropolitan Milwaukee, thus making it available with a minimum of inconvenience?
   
   
4. Is the title available elsewhere in the University of Wisconsin System, making interlibrary loan access to particular titles available relatively quickly?
   
   
5. Are articles from a specialized title available through rapid document delivery services at a highly cost-effective rate compared to a subscription?
   
   
6. Are some or all years of coverage of the title available through an electronic data base service?

Regrettably, in recent years, fiscal realities have required cancellation of many serials titles coupled with protracted freezes on the acquisition of new serials. Prior to cancellation decisions, lists of all serials titles have been distributed to faculty for ranking with respect to academic need. Local and urgent need are more important criteria than overall merit or simply scholarly reputation, because of the specialized nature of modern research and the characteristic mix of sub-disciplines in the various university departments and programs, and because there are many thousands of excellent publications which are simply unaffordable. Accreditation requirements certainly carry a heavy weight in these deliberations. Just as the criteria singled out above feature prominently in a decision to acquire a new journal, the same criteria are weighed in any decision to cancel particular titles that are no longer urgently needed or which are no longer affordable.

With regard to new serial subscriptions, the process now starts from the assumption that the libraries will only purchase the paper form of the journal if no cost-effective electronic alternative exists to meet UWM's needs.

The libraries receive the newsletters of a number of societies and other organizations. Typically these come as part of a corporate membership in a society which publishes one or more journals. Others are gifts from individuals or corporate entities. Generally newsletters are of ephemeral interest and are kept only for the current year, and then are discarded, because binding and retaining them is costly in dollars and in shelf space, and often the paper used for newsletters is not meant to last. In some cases, newsletters outgrow or transcend the status of ephemera and contain substantive articles. In such cases, the libraries may decide to retain them permanently, on a case by case basis.

The libraries subscribe to some daily and weekly newspapers of national or international significance, as well as some local, Wisconsin newspapers. The number of newspapers available is quite limited, for reasons of cost. Generally, current newspapers are discarded after two or three months, because of space, storage and preservation considerations. Microfilm of back issues may be purchased, in some cases from the beginning of the publication, depending on availability and continuing importance for academic research. A number of newspaper indexes are also available. Some nationally significant US newspapers are currently available electronically.

International newspapers are received selectively. Most are available only while current. Some foreign newspapers are available electronically, and information about these is posted in the Current Periodicals Room.

Materials are purchased in microformat when one or more of the following is true:

1. material is only available in microfiche or microfilm. For example, the U.S. Serial Set of Congressional reports and documents are no longer available in paper, except to regional depository libraries (which in Southeastern Wisconsin means Milwaukee Public Library);
   
   
2. the necessary completeness can only be assured through purchase of a microform set or edition, as in the case of some government documents, or journals frequently vandalized or stolen;
   
   
3. preservation needs, e.g. for newspapers, require microform;
   
   
4. storage space for printed versions is not justified given the relatively low usage of particular parts or large collections;
   
   
5. price considerations are compelling, given the disparity between paper and micro formats.

From the perspective of building collections to meet UWM's academic needs, there are both advantages and pitfalls associated with electronic formats.

Clear advantages of the availability of documents in electronic form include:

1. convenient remote access from a workstation;
   
   
2. rapidity and accuracy in searching when compared to using a traditional manual index or locating physical volumes on a shelf;
   
   
3. effective ways to search combinations of terms, through the use of Boolean logic;
   
   
4. usually the capability of searching across several years of a serial, several (equivalent) physical volumes of an index, or many serial titles at once, when aggregated by a vendor;
   
   
5. enormous saving of shelf space over hardcopy formats;
   
   
6. ready access to printing downloaded documents; and
   
   
7. potential cost savings with respect to paper supply, shipping, and storage costs.

Offsetting these are substantial costs, including the expense of purchasing equipment and processing electronic formats, as well as the need to provide training to staff and our users.

Unresolved issues at this time include some vitally important considerations:

1. lack of assurance of permanent archiving of some electronic materials, because of cost and changing software, particularly from for-profit suppliers;
   
   
2. lack of assurance of continued uniform coverage of titles available as part of a package of full-text publications;
   
   
3. lack of ownership of electronic publications by the libraries, in cases where leasing of a CD-ROM or Web access to information substitutes for purchasing a paper subscription;
   
   
4. pricing practices by vendors which tend to raise, rather than lower, prices for electronic formats;
   
   
5. licensing agreements which tend to erode statutory fair use considerations and which require considerable oversight and negotiation;
   
   
6. limited acceptance, by scholars, of electronic publication as equivalent in value to publication in accepted paper journals.

The highest priority is given to providing electronic access to important indexing and abstracting services. Continued retrospective access to a number of these seems highly likely and this has permitted cancellation of some paper subscriptions. In the case of some journals, the publishers have discouraged cancellation of paper by their pricing policies. Relative and absolute prices are of course a major factor in the libraries' decision to purchase electronic versions of a source, when there is a choice.

Distance education is another priority in providing electronic information, which can be brought instantly to a learner in a remote location.

In a few cases, electronic access to the Web product is offered free (sometimes only for a time) to subscribers of the paper publication, typically in the case of specialized journals. Other publishers, including the U.S. government, have discontinued publishing, or stopped freely distributing, some resources formerly available in loose-leaf format, bound paper copies, or microform, in favor of electronic access. These resources include the U.S. Census, the Serial Set of Congressional documents and reports (now distributed in paper only to regional depositories, such as Milwaukee Public Library), certain tax law materials, and HRAF (Human Relations Area Files). Obviously no real deliberation over formats is possible in such cases.

Students increasingly expect research materials to be available in full-text online. At present, electronic "packages" of many academic serials and business publications are funded on a consortial basis by UW System Administration. Others are available because of government funding through the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. The available combination of titles may vary in the future due to marketplace competition among for-profit vendors of these grouped or "bundled" electronic publications. In most cases permanent archiving is not assured and some "full-text" publications may be less complete than assumed. Also, funding for some of these sources is not secure or under control of UWM or its libraries, and the future of such materials is not assured. Thus it is premature to consider canceling paper subscriptions just because they may be duplicated by these for-profit services. A reliably archived group of online journals to which the UWM community has access is JSTOR, which covers back issues of journals in the humanities and social sciences; current issues are not included. As of July 1, 2003, the number of JSTOR titles available at UWM is 239.

Individual electronic journals are not, for the most part, purchased at this time. Should such acquisition become generally feasible, selection criteria will be similar to those already given for serials publications in general.