A&I RIP Survey Andria McGrath Senior Information Specialist Kings College London

At your institution: have you already cancelled, or made the decision to cancel, any A&I databases? 22 responses Yes No Not currently

At your institution: are you considering the cancellation of any (or any more) A&I databases? 19 responses Yes No Not currently

Which databases have been/will be/may be cancelled? ABIX Abstracts - an Australian news index AMED ASSIA Beilstein Crossfire BHI (British Humanities Index [x2] BIOSIS [x3] CAB Abstracts DAAI (Design and Applied Arts Index )

Which databases - 2 Emerald Computer Abstracts International Film & Television Literature Index Index to Theses INSPEC [x3 + 1 considered, but rejected] Leisure, Recreation and Tourism Abstracts MLA International Bibliography NTIS (National Technical Information Service)

Which databases - 3 Philospher's Index RILM abstracts of Music Literature RSC Analytical Abstracts Scopus Short Story Index Standards Expert Urban Studies Abstracts

Drivers for cancellation Budgetary restraints ranked 1st or 2 nd in 9 cases 1 st – 3, 2 nd – 6 Available by other means ranked 1 st or 2 nd in 6 cases 1 st – 2, 2 nd – 4 Low usage ranked 1 st or 2 nd in 4 cases

Drivers for cancellation - 2 No longer considered useful ranked 1 st in 3 cases Minority interest not ranked 1 st or 2 nd Other – 2 Contracts restrict what we might actually consider. Money is the main driver for cancellation as opposed to change of use/ something cheaper/ better for free.

Who made the decisions? Research staff – 4 Teaching staff – 4 Senior Information service/library staff – 10 Subject specialists/librarians – 10 We consulted with academic staff via library reps Academics still like the A & I databases

Databases replaced by alternatives Biosis – CAB Abstracts and Medline CAB Abstracts – EBSCO Environment Complete NTIS – most US government reports are now free on the web. Index to Theses – ETHOS INSPEC – CiteSeer and GoogleScholar

Other comments Money is the main incentive Academics have pushed us hard to prove lack of use Decision may yet be rescinded (Scopus) As credit crunch continues – more A&I services will be vulnerable Free services like Google Scholar dont give related records, references, etc.

Priority to keep primary journal subs going – may force another A&I database cancellation OK this year – but may change in future OK this year – but will be looking carefully at usage stats – users demand immediate access to full text