We are committed to supporting the academic and scholarly success of our community. As stewards of the world of information, our goal is to strike a balance between providing relevant resources to meet increasingly diverse research and teaching needs at UConn while staying within our budget.
Our ability to meet our community’s rapidly evolving information needs was challenged by expensive “Big Deal” journal subscription bundles with flat or reduced library budgets. This combination of mounting costs and shrinking budgets led us to shift to a more sustainable approach for providing access to scholarly information. As a national leader among public research universities, we joined other academic libraries in rethinking the traditional use of for-profit journal publishing to make scholarship more open, affordable, transparent, and sustainable.
The Future of Collections at UConn Library is a commitment to being responsive, staying relevant, and creating a sustainable research environment that supports the goals of the University of Connecticut.
What does this mean for how you get what you need?
Your access to library collections is provided in a responsive manner, rather than reactive. Articles will continue to be delivered following the processes established with the Future of Journals. The most efficient way to get to the full-text is to directly search the library catalog or library-provided subject databases for expedited access. If you need help, check out our guide.
For books and other resources, the model has changed from local holdings and specialized curation (except in the case of Archives & Special Collections) to ensuring access through interlibrary loan, discoverability of Open Access resources, and demand-driven purchasing (often referred to as data-driven, demand-driven, or evidence-based acquisitions).
Want to learn more about how we spend our collections budget, and how much we estimate the savings to UConn have been since 2020?
Check out our collections by the numbers page.
FAQs
What is the Future of Collections Project?
Given the state of federal funding and UConn budgetary challenges, the library annually reviews all resources to purchase or otherwise provide access to the extent possible within the allotted budget. Any decisions about subscriptions and purchases will in no way impact other resources/services you have come to rely on, including access to other search tools to help you find the articles and other materials needed for your work.
How does the library purchase and license content?
The library works to ensure users have access to the materials they need, which includes purchasing, licensing, interlibrary loan, and other methods. The subject liaisons select materials, working with the collections strategist and the acquisitions and discovery unit for purchasing and licensing.
How else does the library get access to content, in addition to purchasing and licensing full titles?
For journal articles, the library has used Article Galaxy Scholar since 2021 to provide UConn faculty (including emeriti and adjunct) and graduate students the ability to request rapid delivery of articles from a small number of selected journals. The library has created a guide to answer questions you may have. Please send your questions and/or comments regarding Article Galaxy Scholar by email to ermsupport@uconn.edu.
What does this mean for getting the books I need for my research?
If the library doesn’t own a title or provide access to it we provide interlibrary loan. If you need a book for your teaching, contact your subject liaison. Also, the library proactively works with vendors using demand driven acquisition and to purchase titles related to faculty research and teaching at UConn.
Where can I find UConn’s unique collections?
In addition to purchased materials, the library has rare and unique collections developed primarily from donations that are held in Archives & Special Collections. UConn has many different rare and unique collections held by other groups on campus, including museums, and more information about them is available on the Collections at UConn site.
Additionally, the UConn Library hosts the Connecticut Digital Archive (CTDA), which is Connecticut’s statewide digital repository with collections shared openly for all from over 100 different institutions.
What does this mean for “read and publish” or “transformative agreements”?
Journal publishers use many different pricing models, and some offer “read and publish agreements” or “transformative agreements.” A “read and publish” agreement means that the library pays for the subscription cost to the journal which covers the publishing costs, i.e., paying article publishing costs (APCs) upfront. The UConn Library evaluates all subscriptions and agreements based on cost and value, and provides information on any discounts and waivers on the library website.
Authors are sometimes asked to pay article processing charges (APCs) to publish books or articles on an open access basis. To cover these fees, UConn-affiliated faculty researchers are encouraged to apply for Scholarship Facilitation Fund awards from the University’s Office of the Vice President for Research (currently paused for FY26). The UConn Library does not provide direct funding to cover these fees. For more information, see the library’s Scholarly Communications pages.
What does this mean for Subscribe to Open (S2O) journals?
Subscribe to Open” (S2O) is a pragmatic approach to convert subscription journals to open access, without reliance on either article processing charges (APCs) or altruism.
The library regularly reviews all subscriptions. Thus far, in the review process, if the library has had an existing subscription to a journal that converted to S2O, the library has found ample value and has continued the subscription. For any journals, including those published following S2O, without an existing subscription, the library evaluates following the same standard practices.
How is this changing our physical collections?
The library acquires electronic (instead of print/physical) resources based on user preferences and needs, this supports students and faculty across multiple campuses and working remotely. More can be found in our Collections Development Policy.
As the growth of physical collections slows, the library has reclaimed space for student use that would have been used to grow physical collections.
Is there a list of resources that will not be purchased or renewed?
There is not a list. The library provides access to materials in a responsive, adaptive, and iterative manner, ensuring access to the same or similar content even when materials are not purchased or renewed. We will get you what you need, it just may be through an alternative way, i.e. you may have to use a different index or database to find what you are looking for. Your subject liaison can help with alternative options.
How will the Future of Collections impact the UConn Health and Law communities?
We continue to work closely with our campus partners to provide convenient, cost-effective access. The Health Sciences and Law libraries maintain their own collections and budgets. We ask the Health and Law communities continue to rely on the robust interlibrary loan services at their own libraries.
How do I suggest that a resource be renewed or added?
Submit suggestions through our Request a Purchase page. The library will review and add materials that meet narrow and specific parameters and that can be supported by the budget.
Does the library subscribe to journals if a UConn Faculty is an editor?
No, the library does not subscribe to journals based on UConn faculty editorship. If you would like to suggest a journal subscription, submit your request through our Request s Purchase page.
Does the library buy books that UConn faculty write?
Yes. The UConn Library showcases UConn-produced research by systematically collecting faculty-authored books. See more about the Faculty-Authored Books program.
How does the library support scholarly publishing?
The library supports scholarly publishing for the full ecosystem through collaborative work with critical organizations to change policies and practices and to build collective collections, including SPARC, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), the Center for Research Libraries (CRL), HathiTrust, and Subscribe to Open (S2O).
The library provides direct support for students and faculty through resource information online and liaison librarian support.
The library also works closely with the Provost’s Library Advisory Committee (PLAC) to address all forms of scholarly information acquisition by the University and all forms of information delivery to its faculty and students. For example, 2024-2025, PLAC charged a subcommittee to investigate and present findings on article publishing charges (APCs) and another on the Whitehouse’s Office of Science & Technology Policy’s Open Access deposit requirements, which resulted in new resources online and shared across campus.
For more information, see the library’s Scholarly Communications pages.
How can I give you my feedback or ask questions?
You can contact us at librarycollections@uconn.edu