ABSTRACT
The purchase of journal subscriptions by libraries is an atypical institutional acquisition. Not only must subscriptions be paid for in full before the product is received, but libraries must make decisions on what to purchase before they know what the actual price is going to be. As a result, libraries have come to depend upon projections for journal subscription prices in order to prepare their budgets. Generally, serials vendors—the industry intermediary between publishers and libraries—have provided price projections as a service to their clients.
