NASIG 2026

This presentation explores strategies for providing access to library resources while saving dollars within the constraints of a long-standing flat materials budget. We will discuss usage analytics, creative problem-solving, collaborative approaches, and practical insights into sustaining access to both physical and electronic collections.

Academic libraries across the country are navigating increasingly tough financial times. With materials budgets remaining flat or even declining, collection strategists face the challenge of sustaining access to essential resources and saving money while minimizing disruption to patrons. While it’s easy to appreciate acquisitions, the real assessment lies in the difficult decisions: planning for annual inflationary increases in subscriptions, cancelling subscriptions, delaying purchases, and rethinking long-standing practices. This presentation explores how libraries can maintain solid collections despite budgetary constraints and inflation.

Our library has operated under a flat budget for over twenty-five years. In 2022, we made the difficult decision to cut $300,000 in databases and journals. We are currently engaged in a major weeding project to improve usage and increase space. Faced with these realities, our collection strategist librarians have embraced creative, data-informed approaches to preserve access and save money where possible. We developed analytic reports to guide decision-making and explored many methods to meet campus needs: cost-per-use models, overlap analyses, aggregator coverage, one-time database purchases, third-party document delivery services, and collaborative print consortiums. Each method offered new insights and, sometimes, unexpected challenges. This session shares lessons learned, strategies tested, and solutions discovered. Curiosity, experimentation, and flexibility were key to our progress—and not every idea worked the first time.