Commercial Serials Decision Support Databases (SDSDs) provide concise summaries of journal usage data to help with budgeting, collection development, and administrative reporting. Key features of SDSDs include analyzing user behavior, justifying budgets, and reducing staff workload. When choosing an SDSD, factors to consider include budget, staffing levels, type of needed analysis, and local collection needs. SDSDs can provide comparative holdings, usage statistics, package deal evaluations, resource sharing analyses, and gap/overlap assessments to support data-driven serials decisions. Current issues include incomplete publisher reports and lack of data integration, but future trends may include expanded analysis types and more customizable reporting tools.

1. Commercial Serials Decision Support Databases By Robin Paynter