Jenica Rogers knew that chemists on the Potsdam campus of the State University of New York relied on information from the American Chemical Society journals, and, as the Director of Libraries, she felt compelled to provide what they needed to be effective scholars.

But after five years of prices rising 71 percent, the cost of this year’s ACS online package would have consumed more than 10 percent of her total acquisitions budget. (The exact cost of the 2013 proposal is confidential.)