NOTES FROM RAMSEY LIBRARY; 2009-5

LIBRARY CANCELLATIONS

Like all campus units, Ramsey Library began this year with a significant cut to its operating budget and the attendant reduction in the information resources we could buy. The first law of library economics is that the cost of books, journals, and electronic subscriptions rise every year. In aggregate, this increase has averaged about 8% a year over several decades depending on many factors including the strength of the dollar. Journals, continuations, and electronic products tend to increase more rapidly and regularly averaging about 10%. Book prices increase at a much lower rate closer to the increase in the Consumer Price Index. Inevitably, a library’s tendency is to pay the increasing prices of the serials and continuations devoting whatever is left to the more discretionary book requests or perhaps new serial titles. It’s not difficult to envision what happens when the overall library materials budget fails to grow, much less the potentially dire consequences of materials budget reductions. Maintaining current serial subscriptions reduces funds available for books. And since the most costly serials, both paper and electronic, tend to be in the natural sciences there is a disproportionate effect on those disciplines that rely more heavily on books, particularly the humanities.
Given this year’s budget reduction, Ramsey Library sought to maintain as much of our book buying capability as possible. Late in the fall library bibliographers consulted with some faculty and made difficult decisions to cancel lesser used serials in both paper and electronic formats that were judged to have least impact on teaching and research. Obvious targets were subscriptions to the paper versions of journals where we already subscribed to an electronic version in a stable format. In such cases we lost no content while eliminating the cost for the paper subscription as well as an associated expenses for binding, staff processing, and library space. The canceled electronic products were judged to have high cost relative to benefit or that they duplicated information available in a less costly or free resource. For example, we canceled INFOTRAC ($5,115), a basic full-text periodical database we’ve long maintained, because we also receive Academic Search Premier, a very similar product, at no cost through NC LIVE. Please note also that one advantage of electronic products as compared with more traditional library serials subscriptions is that we can restart them when budgets permit and demand requires. You can find a listing of cancellations athttp://facstaff.unca.edu/kuhlman/Ramsey_Library_Cancellations.pdf. Savings totaled just over $64,000.
Like the rest of campus and most of higher education, Ramsey Library anticipates at least as much financial difficulty over the next few years as we’ve already experienced. Accordingly, library bibliographers are working on initial prioritization of potential cancellations of additional electronic products, continuations, and journals, and will be working with available faculty and the Library, Information Resources & Technology Committee (LIRTC) over the summer and into the fall in order to exercise the greatest possible stewardship with the resources we have. This will require creativity and flexibility from us all. We appreciate your help and patience.
LIBRARY STAFFING

As you plan for the fall, please keep in mind that the library will be operating with fewer staff as will many areas on campus. You already know that Classroom Instruction & Technology Support (CITS) will not be able to fill Rudy Moorrees’ position and that we anticipate losing it permanently. In addition, we lost our User Instruction & Reference Librarian at the end of the fall semester and have not been able to fill that position. I anticipate that it will also be lost permanently. With the loss of two professional positions everyone in Ramsey Library and CITS is intensifying their efforts to continue to provide the very best information services possible, but there will be some diminishment. This will be particularly true when it comes to our ability to support information literacy efforts next fall since we have lost the primary professional position devoted to that effort.
REDUCED BOOK PURCHASES

As indicated above, fixed or reduced library materials budgets tend to reduce book purchases as a first casualty. This affected Ramsey Library purchasing from the beginning of the year and motivated the serials cancellations indicated above. Unfortunately, book ordering was halted with a bit more than $70,000 in book funds unencumbered more than eliminating book purchases we had planned to make with the $64,000 savings from serials cancellations noted above. The combined effect of the initial reduction and the early stoppage is represented in the following table:
Academic Year—————–Book Volumes Added

2006-2007——————————7,079

2007-2008——————————6,258

2008-2009——————————3,269
We face great unknowns, but at this point Ramsey Library estimates that without cancelling additional electronic products and assuming a materials budget at least equaling this year’s expenditures (optimistic, perhaps) we may only be able to purchase 1,000 to 1,500 new books next year.
IMPACT

NOTES FROM RAMSEY LIBRARY reports these figures so that instructors realize that students are already encountering diminished resources in terms of books and a few electronic resources. Please anticipate greater impact as you plan for next year. While we are fortunate in being able to tap the collections at ASU and WCU through ABC Express (note: we’re not sure how long that service will be allowed), they anticipate significant cuts in funds as well. The library at ASU has begun a serials cancellation project of far greater scope than we anticipate. Many thanks in advance for your help and understanding.