Subscription trends of foreign journals at university libraries in Japan

Up until now, university and college libraries in Japan have managed to cope with various changing elements. The ever‐increasing costs of serials publications have been met thanks to the steady yearly increase of library budgets, the yen’s appreciation and the efforts of subscriptions agents. These favourable conditions, however, are not expected to continue. In order to offer information services effectively to patrons in the future, university and college libraries must consider various alternatives. These options will include methods such as outsourcing, the secondary publishing market and information literacy.