Under the twin pressures of exponential growth and rampant price inflation, academic libraries have begun to undergo fundamental changes. This emerges from the statistics published by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) for 1994–95 (pp. 7–16) on its 119 members, which constitute the largest research libraries in North America. Of these 119 ARL members, 108 are university libraries. The ARL statistics reveal that inflationary pressures forced research libraries to cut down on the number of their paid serials subscriptions through cancellations even in the face of the exponentially growing number of serials. Thus, while the median serial unit price paid by ARL libraries rose 137.9% from $88.81 in 1986 to $211.29 in 1995, during the same period the median number of ARL paid subscriptions dropped 7.8% from 16,198 to 14,942.

This drop, however, did not relieve the budgetary pressures on ARL libraries, and their median serials expenditure increased 106.5% from $1,517,724 in 1986 to $3,133,885 in 1995. To maintain their serials collections even at reduced levels, it appears from the ARL statistics that research libraries were compelled to utilize monograph funds. This is shown by the fact that while the median monograph unit price paid by ARL libraries increased 58.0% from $28.65 in 1986 to $45.27 in 1995—less than half the median serials price increase—the median number of monographs purchased by ARL libraries fell 22.6% from 33,210 in 1986 to 25,719 in 1995 (nearly triple the drop in serials subscriptions). Moreover, the median amount spent by ARL libraries for monographs increased 21.9% from $1,120,645 in 1986 to $1,365,575 in 1995—approximately one-fifth the percentage increase in median ARL serials expenditures during the same period. The sharp reduction in the purchasing power of academic libraries took place in conjunction with a continued growth in their patron base, with the median number of teaching faculty served by ARL libraries rising 17.4% and the median number of students increasing 8.4% during the period 1986–95.

All these factors combined to force a change of emphasis among academic libraries from ownership to access as the cost of access became more affordable compared to the cost of ownership—a trend assisted by improvements in electronic communications and the establishment of networks, consortia, etc. This continuous shift from ownership to access was marked by the annual average increase of 9.3% in the median number of interlibrary borrowings by ARL members during the period 1986–95, which grew 104.3% from 7,049 in 1986 to 14,403 in 1995.

Impact on the Libraries of LSU

The serials crisis hit the libraries at LSU harder than other members of the ARL. These libraries are organized into three administratively separate units: (1) LSU Libraries, encompassing the main Middleton Library, Hill Memorial Library for special collections, and a number of branch libraries; (2) the Law Library; and (3) the Veterinary Medicine Library. Louisiana has always ranked near the bottom on all economic and social indices, and from around the mid-1980s onward the state's fiscal problems were compounded by the decline of petroleum as a source of revenue. LSU was wracked by a series of budgetary emergencies that severely affected its libraries.

The impact of these emergencies is evident in the ARL Statistics for fiscal years 1985–86 and 1994–95, which reports on all three LSU library administrative units. Of crucial importance was the freezing of the materials budgets for these libraries. In fiscal year 1985–86 these materials budgets were $3,385,282, and in fiscal year 1994–95 they were $3,094,789—a decline of 8.6%. Not surprisingly, there began wave after wave of serials cancellations. Internal LSU Libraries documents show that 2,207 titles were canceled from 1986 to 1994 and that the serials canceled in the period 1987–94 cost $618,883.54. These cancellations were accompanied by a policy of no new subscriptions. For its part, in 1993 LSU Law Library canceled approximately 2,000 of its 4,000 current serials. The consequences of these actions are manifested in the ARL Statistics. Whereas in 1985–86 the libraries of LSU are listed as having 17,970 current serials, the ARL data for 1994–95 show these libraries as subscribing to only 11,853 serials—a reduction of 34.0% or 4.4 times more than median reduction in the number of such serials for all ARL libraries in the same period.

However, even these drastic reductions in the number of subscriptions did not provide budgetary relief, and current serials expenditures of the libraries on the LSU campus rose 29.8% from $1,897,212 in 1985–86 to $2,462,368 in 1994–95. The increase was 3.6 times less than the median increase in current serials expenditures for all ARL libraries, but it was not enough to save monograph purchases, given the conditions of frozen materials budgets. While median monograph expenditures of all ARL libraries rose 21.9%, such expenditures at the libraries of LSU dropped 50.3% from $1,244,466 in 1985–86 to $617,998 in 1994–95. Due to inflation, the drop in the number of monographs acquired was even greater, falling 62.9% from 29,811 in 1985–86 to 11,048 in 1994–95.

As a result of such pressures, the libraries on the LSU campus rapidly transferred from ownership of materials to access to them. Interlibrary borrowing increased 138.3% from 4,802 in 1985–86 to 11,441 in 1994–95. However, the rapid escalation in interlibrary borrowing might not have been due only to reductions in serials and monographic acquisitions; it might also have been affected by a major improvement in the academic level of the libraries' patron base. While from the fall of 1986 to the fall of 1994 the number of faculty remained virtually constant, the number of full-time-equivalent graduate students rose 27.5% from 3,177 to 4,052, even though the overall number of full-time-equivalent students was sharply decreased 22.2% from 26,180 to 20,379 by the raising of entrance requirements.

It was under such crisis conditions that LSU Libraries decided to launch its Serials Redesign Project (SRP).