Received word today that we are considering cutting subscriptions of around 50 education journals. Since Kentucky is still in a relatively moderate financial position, I have to imagine that if we are cutting library budgets, most other states are as well. How will most paper journals cope with this massive drop in support from public libraries? Well, they might have to cut their print editions, even though they have historically tied the print edition to the electronic edition. This article sums it up nicely:
Once given an either-or choice of print or digital, ACS subscribers made their preference clear. "We saw the purchasing market, starting with the institutional libraries, canceling print to such an extent that, when we got through the last renewal season, it was obvious that many of our journals have fallen below the threshold where you could practically consider printing them as a logical choice, much less an economic choice," Nordin said. "Some journals are printed twice a week, they're hundreds of pages, they include four-color graphics. The economics of print no longer worked."
Could the death be a quick one? I think it is possible that the vast majority of academic journals in 5-10 years will be electronic only. Because governmental budgets are typically behind the broader economy, the downturn in the economy over the past few years has only manifested itself substantially in this fiscal year and for the next few. With these budget cuts, I think paper journals are going to suffer especially badly. They are expensive to purchase and they are expensive to bind. They are also expensive to store taking up space that could be devoted to other things, like computer workstations. They are just cost prohibitive in this economic environment and I think the real possibility exists that once we start rolling down this hill, the decline could be quick. Without those institutional subscriptions to subsidize the printing costs, journals may be forced to quickly respond by going to electronic publication only.
What does this mean? I don't know. Maybe not all that much. When is the last time you went to the library and sorted through the stacks to find a print edition of a journal?