Major Cuts Planned at Canada's National Science Library Draw Protest
Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 04/07/2009
- Warning of "national misfortune" at NRC-CISTI
- Budget cuts would limit access to journals
- Fear that privatizing services would diminish them
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Library organizations in both Canada and the United States are protesting major cuts planned in the country’s national science library, known as NRC-CISTI, the acronyms for National Research Council and Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information.
A bland notice on the NRC-CISTI web site promises realignment of some resources and programs but doesn’t offer details. However, a letter from the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) warns that CISTI’s budget would be “cut by 50 percent, with another 20 percent removed as spin-offs of cost-recovery programs.”
It is unclear whether a reversal or diminishment of the planned cuts is possible. NRC spokesman Mark Hudon told LJ, "NRC remains focused on supporting Canada’s innovation infrastructure and sees CISTI as an integral component in supporting the development and transfer of new technologies to Canadian firms and the growth of Canada’s industrial innovation capacity. As these changes will be phased in over several years, plans for these activities are not yet finalized and still currently being developed."
"National misfortune"
While, “[i]n the Canadian STM community, CISTI is relied upon as our STM information provider of last resort,” the budget cuts would hinder CIST from keeping up, which CARL called “a national misfortune.” CARL warned that “the impact will be keenly felt by stakeholders in the NRC, at universities, and in industry.”
CISTI is moving to virtual collections; CARL points out that a research advantage is still provided by local resource collections and information professionals supporting local research teams.
The cost-recovery changes include moving programs like CISTI’s Information and Intelligence Services, CISTI’s document delivery services, and the NRC Research Press to the private sector. Given that those programs are supported by CISTI’s general infrastructure, they may not be viable—and increased costs would impact researchers. CARL also warns that even nonprofit publishers have been increasing prices on scientific literature beyond inflation.
Potential impact
Cathy Rayment, Provincial Library Leader in the British Columbia Cancer Agency (BCCA) emphasized the value of CISTI, noting that this fiscal year her agency spent over $3000 (CDN) to obtain interlibrary loans from CISTI for articles published in journals BCCA does not own, and that are not held by other Canadian academic libraries.
“If CISTI doesn’t own the items needed, we try to obtain the articles from large US libraries such as the federal National Library of Medicine, and we pay double or triple the price,” she noted. “By decimating CISTI’s budget, its extensive collections will be cut, and within a very short time this reliable, national library service will be unable to assist in supplying resources to hundreds of other Canadian libraries.”
ARL letter
The Washington-based Association of Research Libraries (ARL) sent its own letter to the NRC, warning of the effects of cuts on CISTI, which is an ARL member along with 16 other large research libraries in Canada.
“The services of CISTI have been invaluable to the ARL membership, and their cost-effective services are models to the research library community,” ARL wrote.
“One of the activities with which we are concerned is that this new plan will affect the international effort to create PMC Canada. This project is intended to make biomedical information more accessible to the international community as part of the broader PubMed Central International (PMCI),” ARL warned.
ARL also suggested that privatizing the NRC Press would limit access to scientific information
CISTI changes
At the end of 2008, NRC-CISTI announced a new “collect and connect” journals strategy, focusing on “collecting electronic-only and connecting clients to publisher sites and other sources of content.” Print journal titles will be canceled in 2009 and 2010 in the wake of lowered demand for print and an increasing preference for immediate access to electronic content.
This January, print journal subscriptions were cancelled for publishers Elsevier, Springer, and Taylor & Francis—about one-third of the STM titles. A new NRC-CISTI collection policy will be made available this spring.
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