Trying to thrive: making do without making waves

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to consider how a stationary materials budget might be rearranged to permit the purchase of new electronic resources. Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines the likely ways money can be saved or reallocated: canceling; negotiating better prices; substituting free resources; and finding money outside the annual institutional allotment. Findings – It was surprising not to find in the current literature a tool for comparing journal aggregates and library databases with open source options, since there seem to be plenty of comparisons between commercial and open source software programs. Originality/value – The paper offers suggestions as to how libraries can save or reallocate money.