Much of higher education is operating in resource-constrained environments. This affects all aspects of higher education, including libraries. Auraria Library was tasked with a 4% reduction in fiscal year (FY) 2024 and an additional 2.6% reduction in FY 2025. Reductions to the total Library budget are shared by all three institutions that contribute to the library’s budget; the University of Colorado Denver, Metropolitan State University of Denver, and Community College of Denver. All three institutions have seen a decrease in enrollment in recent years which affects budgets.

One-third of the library's budget is used for purchasing or subscribing to learning materials (LM) such as databases, journals, books, ebooks, streaming media, newspapers, data and statistical sources, DVDs, anatomical models, and more. Auraria Library's priority was to preserve faculty and staff positions. Therefore, in FY 24 $241,835 would be cut from the LM budget and in FY 25 $266,956 would be cut. This totaled $508,791 (13.9%). When libraries experience budget cuts, it’s very common for the collections budget to be cut.

Library faculty and staff spent months gathering data about library resources to determine which resources might be cut in FY 2025. Data reviewed includes:

• Relevancy to campus needs
• Accreditation requirements
• Relevancy to library’s mission to support diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)
• Prioritization of full-text resources over indexes
• Subject
• Cost
• Price history
• Usage
• Cost-per-use (CPU)
• Duplication of content
• Vendor ethics
• Faculty, staff, and student feedback

We first created a potential cancellations list mainly based on quantitative feedback. We then gathered feedback from campus constituents to determine which of those resources would ultimately be cancelled. The number of resources cancelled depended upon the individual cost of each resource and feedback we received. Users may still have access to a resource months after the cancellation announcement due to the subscription period; however, once the resource comes up for renewal in FY 2025, it will be cancelled. Additionally, much of the cancelled content will still be available via Interlibrary Loan.

Below is a list of resources that were reviewed for cancellation in FY 2024. For the list of resources that were ultimately cancelled, see the Database and Journal Cancellations page. For answers to frequently asked questions about our cancellations process, please visit Auraria Library Resource Cancellations FAQs.