Rising Cost of Journals Has Libraries Reeling

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STUDENTS AND OTHER researchers are used to driving to a library across town or faxing a request to a library clear across the country when they can't find that special book or journal article in their own college or university library.

For users of libraries at Missouri's public universities and colleges, the chase promises only to get more frustrating.

With the number of books and scholarly journals growing, their prices ballooning way out of proportion to inflation, and the amount of electronic information exploding, all libraries are having a harder time keeping up.

Some university libraries are scrambling for enormous budget increases. Those that can't …