Buying about 30,000 journals per year for Penn State students and faculty has become a problem for the Penn State libraries.

The escalating prices of serial journals -- all publications that come out more than once a year -- was brought to the attention of the University Faculty Senate in an informational report at Tuesday's meeting.

Bonnie MacEwan, assistant dean for collections and scholarly communication, said if the library continues purchasing serial journals, it would run out of money to buy any material at all by 2015.

In the past 17 years, a 260 percent increase in serial journal costs has been recorded.

Faculty Senate Chair Kim Steiner said there is an abundance of scholarly publications and requiring the libraries to keep them up-to-date is an expensive expenditure.

"The Senate can figure out the right thing to do," he said. "We need to provide some credible guidelines for properly credited [publications] and resort to electronic publishing."

Science and medical journals are marked with the highest prices, said Bob Alan, head of serials and acquisition services.

"The price increase for many science journals exceeds the normal inflation rates," he said.

In an effort to combat the high cost of the journals, the libraries have taken a series of steps to maintain lower spending. They have cut 6 percent of serial journals, eliminated duplicate copies across print and electronic formats, and signed deals with big publishers to ensure more electronic access.

The University Press and the libraries have also joined forces in an additional attempt to resolve this problem.

The Penn State Office of Digital Scholarly Publishing was created in October for increased cost-efficient publishing and a greater focus on electronic publishing. "What this means is that a book would never go out of print," MacEwan said. "It will always be available to you."

The office wants to provide non-commercial publications and scholarly information that professors can use in their research.

It is a response to the high prices determined by commercial publishers, said Peter Potter, University Press editor in chief and associate director.

"We are exploring new outlooks in the electronic realm," he said.

Some faculty members do not realize the cost of the journals when they request some journals from the library, MacEwan said.

"There is an expectation for scholars to prepare scholarly research, but this can be done online," she said.

MacEwan added online research would certainly reduce the costs the library is currently facing.

Steiner said the Senate could do something about the problem.