Why does it seem to always come as a surprise to librarians that their budgets can be affected  by foreign exchange? Last year, when the pound to dollar ratio was an excruciating 2 to 1, it was the US librarians bemoaning the lack of purchasing power when it came to British and European journals. This year, as we Americans are happier with the exchange rate closer to 1.5 to 1, it is the British whose budgets are in need of help. An article by Zoe Corbyn in THE (Times Higher Education) titled "Journal subscriptions at risk as weak pound hits library budget" quotes Mark Brown, chair of Research Libraries UK and head of the library at the University of Southampton, as saying libraries might have to cancel journals because their budgets won’t stretch to meet the strengthened dollar. I’m sympathetic with the predicament, and hugely aware of the difficulties of predicting exchange rates (just look at all the experts who predicted oil prices at $200 a barrel!), but I’m not sure why this is considered to be news. Exchange rate fluctuations are inevitable. Whether they go in your favor or not, however, is a guessing game that, inevitably, librarians will sometimes win and sometimes lose.