In response to a 3.2 percent budget reduction, the University Library announced a series of proposed changes for the 2009-10 fiscal year Tuesday. The proposals aim to save money while still maintaining current operations, said Charlotte Morford, director of communications for the University Library.
To deal with a loss of $720,000, the proposed changes include reducing operating costs, staff travel and maintenance costs, Morford said. The University Library also will work to renegotiate the annual percentage price increase for online databases and journals from 7 to 5 percent, she added.
Furthermore, the Library will adjust the way it builds collections. The University Library will lessen its use of approval plans — agreements where publishers ship books automatically, to purchase books — and instead purchase books based on individual requests, Morford said. The University Library will also purchase books based on the recommendations of selectors, staff members who work with faculty and students in their area of expertise. Including the cost of processing and postage and other fees, this change alone could save $400,000 out of a $6.6 million budget for collections, Associate University Librarian Carol Hunter said.
Other cost-cutting measures include not renewing leases for stand-alone public computers or replacing broken machines, Morford said. This is an incremental change that will occur with time, she said, noting that there always will be public machines available to access library resources. The University Library is not closing any of its computer labs, including the Scholars’ Lab, the Digital Media Lab and the Research Computing Lab, Hunter said.
“Those will still be running full steam ahead,” she said.
Student jobs also will remain in the budget, Morford noted. Hiring is cyclical and will continue to be conducted on a semester-by-semester basis, taking into account student availability, she said.
Hunter said she does not expect these changes to impact students.
“We’re maintaining the access to the intellectual content that the students and the faculty need to do their work,” she said.
According to the University Library Web site, visitors and community members are invited to share their ideas about cost-cutting measures, Morford said.
“We’re open to all ideas,” she said. “We look at this as sort of a collaborative challenge.”
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