Collections disclosures

The University of Virginia Library is committed to providing the scholarly community with access to the materials that they need to conduct their research and teaching. This commitment is reflected in the report The University Library Entering Its Third Century (PDF), which declares:

• We will support the University’s priorities for research, scholarship, and creative works in all disciplines through close collaboration with faculty and advanced students on the creation, discovery, dissemination, and translation of knowledge. Our services will address research at every stage, exploit new developments in research design, technologies, and methods, and promote emerging models of scholarly communication.
• We will connect library users with the resources they need whether purchased, licensed, borrowed, or acquired through our network of information resources. We will nurture, steward and share a distinguished collection of unique materials with an international scholarly community. While considering timeliness, cost-effectiveness and stewardship, we will build, promote and steward a collection that encompasses all formats and supports a strong, multidisciplinary university.

In furthering these goals, the library is committed to having an ongoing dialogue about its collections policies. However, without being able to openly and transparently discuss the realities of spending on collections, such a dialogue would be severely limited. In the first of many steps to promote openness about our spending, we are releasing the following information, outlining the costs and usage of several large journal packages, which together represent nearly 40% of our collections budget. We expect to release more detailed information, including title-level data, on a regular basis.

For more information on this initiative, read our FAQ.

If you have further questions or need more information, please contact the Collections Management Team at lib-collections@virginia.edu.

*Note: Historically, the cost for many of these resources has been shared between the University of Virginia Library, the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, and Darden’s Camp Library. The data in the tables below only includes the University of Virginia Library’s cost, with the proportional amounts paid by others noted underneath.

*Growth calculations: 2% yearly growth of collections budget. Package growth based on 3.5% annual growth with larger increases in contract renewal years.