NMSU plan to cut journals sparks concern

LAS CRUCES (AP) - New Mexico State University plans to curtail its periodical and academic journal subscriptions, which worries researchers.

Assistant sociology professor Alison Newby says journals offer the most up-to-date, peer-reviewed research.

She says New Mexico State is supposed to be a research university, so its faculty and students need to keep up.

Newby says that can be difficult when they don't have easy access to the latest journals in their field.

The dean of NMSU libraries, Elizabeth Titus, told the Las Cruces Sun-News institutions across the country face declining budgets and rising subscription costs.

She says prices rose an average of 8 percent in this fiscal year from the previous year.

Titus notes scientific publications tend to be expensive, and research libraries have many more of them than public libraries do.

Information from: Las Cruces Sun-News, http://www.lcsun-news.com