Physician Heal Thyself: The Library and Information Science Serials Crisis

The serials pricing crisis continues to generate a great deal of concern among academic libraries in recent years. This article contributes to the discussion by presenting findings regarding price trends within a specific academic discipline (library science). Specifically, the authors provide data from their review of subscription prices for 132 English language, library, and information science journals over a five-year period (1997-2002). Particular attention is paid to the markedly different price increases of commercial and academic (or association) publishers, respectively, as evidenced by findings on both an aggregate and an individual, journal-by-journal basis. Information regarding the impact of price increases on collection development is also provided.