INFORMATION RESOURCES

• One of the most important resources in support of teaching and research is the library. The library provides collections on campus as well as providing access to documents and databases from other collections around the province and around the world.



Commentary:



• Total library materials expenditures declined in 1997/98 but has increased somewhat in each of the subsequent two years. Given continuing price inflation and dollar devaluation, this represented a continuing decline in purchasing power.
• Expenditures on serials followed the same pattern as total library materials. The number of current serials received continued to fall.
• Carleton's total library expenditures, which were 6% higher than the Ontario provincial average in 1994/95 , dropped below the average in 1995/96 and were 12% below the average in 1997/98 and increased to 9% below the average in 1998/99.
• Carleton is participating in The Canadian National Site Licensing Project. This is a 3-year pilot project involving 64 Canadian universities and is funded by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation ($20M) and by the participating institutions and their provincial funding agencies ($30M). This Canada-wide university library initiative will licence electronic versions of scholarly journals and research databases in the areas of science, health, engineering, and the environment, thereby providing desktop access to these resources to the academic community.