Gloomy budget forecasts and more grim fiscal news from Gov. Mark R. Warner hit home August 19 when University Librarian Karen Wittenborg announced that University libraries are reducing staff and cutting back hours to accommodate further budget cuts.
The libraries, which The Princeton Review recently ranked the second best college library system in the nation, will continue to offer most of their usual services, such as reference librarians and wireless laptops.
A total of 80 students formerly employed by the libraries will not be rehired as a result. The 11 percent staff cut reduces the personnel level to what it was in 1976, according to the memo Wittenborg released on Monday.
Because of personnel cutbacks, there will be a 20 percent reduction in library hours.
Alderman library will close at 10 p.m., two hours earlier than its former midnight closing time. The science and engineering library will also close at 10 p.m., and certain specialty libraries, such as the astronomy library, will only be able to be accessed by key. Clemons library will remain open 24 hours Monday through Thursday, closing at 8 p.m. on Friday. No libraries will be open on weekend mornings.
Wittenborg said the library would suffer because of the smaller staff.
"We rely on a lot of students to keep the library up and running," she said.
Charlotte M. Scott, library director of communications and publications, said she was unsure when the library would be able to restore its staffing and hours.
"The depth of this crisis is really unknown at this point," she said. "Our hope is to restore [the hours] as soon as possible."
Warner announced August 19 that the state budget was short by $1.5 billion, and warned that more bleak financial news could be on the horizon. As a result, he said many state agencies will have to be take severe cutbacks or be eliminated entirely.
Wittenborg also noted that the library no longer will offer unrestricted printing, which has cost the library over $200,000 a year in supplies and maintenance, as well as require labor for repair equal to 2.5 full-time employees.
The library currently is working with University Printing and Copying Services to implement a card-swipe system by which students can charge printing services to their own accounts. In the meantime, library officials will remove public printers from the libraries, though the printers in the ITC labs will still be available.
Certain collections and other information resources may also suffer reductions, though Wittenborg said the library administration has not yet decided on any specific cuts.
"We will have to cut some journals," she said. "There will also be a serious reduction in book purchases." The library will also subscribe to online versions of some journals instead of purchasing the print versions.
She added that the library would consult faculty and students regarding which magazines will be dropped.
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