Students encounter research difficulties with reduction of journals
Joe Trombello
News Writer
Because the rising costs of journal and book subscriptions have outpaced the budget increase for the 2002-03 school year, the Notre Dame libraries have been forced to reduce commitments by 6 percent.
"Library deficits affect everyone on campus," said assistant librarian Cheryl Smith. "Budget problems have a wide sweep because every [University] department uses the library," she said.
Since 1986, the journal unit cost has increased 226 percent and the book unit cost has risen 66 percent, while the price of inflation increased only 57 percent during the time period. According to Jennifer Younger, director of University libraries, the libraries' collection budget and endowment revenues had previously absorbed these inflationary increases but were unable to do so this fiscal year.
The economic downturn also contributed to a decrease in endowment portfolios. While purchasing power of books and journals decreased by 6 to 10 percent because of rising costs, the collections' budget only increased between 2 and 2.5 percent.
"Overall for next year, the increase in the library collection budget is less than the rate of inflation for library materials. Therefore with this limited increase, we have to be more selective in our purchase of books and journals during the coming year," Younger said in a letter addressed to all faculty members in April 2002.
With faculty input, subject librarians in April and May ascertained which journals and books students and staff most frequently used. Over 500 journal titles were cancelled to save $170,000 at the end of the Spring 2002 semester. By the end of this calendar year, the library will also eliminate the 891 paper journals to which faculty and students currently have both electronic and paper access. In this way, the library can reduce its costs without eliminating core content.
"Teaching faculty collaborated with librarians to keep the most needed journals," Younger said. "Trading off the less needed and less frequently used [material was needed to] keep the more needed materials."
Younger said that although the University libraries relied on faculty members and library representatives to work together to determine which materials could be culled, the 2002-03 University Committee on Libraries has both an undergraduate and a graduate student representative to provide student input and suggestions.
"Having access to the latest papers is to research what having oil is to a car. You can't do without it," said Wesley Calvert, graduate student representative. "A lot of graduate students are unhappy with the cuts that have come through already, since it makes things harder to access and there is some material that we just aren't getting anymore."
Although Smith, a subject librarian for education and psychology, has not yet cut any unique journal or book titles, she said that she anticipates she will need to do so to cut commitments by the necessary 6 percent. Some journals in her areas have almost doubled in price from the previous year. Nevertheless, such price increases have not come without criticism. Organizations and coalitions like SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) have risen to fight price increases and publishers' control in an attempt to return science back to the scientists as opposed to the publishing corporations.
"Some commercial publishers have raised prices to a degree that we find unexplainable," Younger said. "We are encouraging the faculty and the scholarly society to bring pressure on commercial publishers."
As publishers have devised new ways of packaging and producing materials, they have gained the control to set price levels and forced libraries to increase their purchases. Whereas librarians could once purchase individual journal titles, publishers have begun to sell many titles in one package. The University Libraries currently subscribe to five major packages with over 2,900 journals.
Because of the continued control of the publishing industry, librarians and student representatives say that budget problems will not be resolved in the near future. Younger said that the budget problem is not exclusive to Notre Dame. Most other libraries at major institutions have also had to reduce their commitments because of the economic downturn and the skyrocketing costs of books and journals.
"There is a fear that the real pain is still coming," Calvert said. "Hopefully before too long the financial situation will be better and we'll be back in shape, but at the moment, things look pretty bleak."
Younger said that any faculty member or student needing specific research materials would continue to be accommodated. Faculty and students can still make use of interlibrary loans to get material, and the University will continue to purchase individual articles from journals if a specific piece is needed. The library also plans to make use of existing relationships and consortiums with other libraries and institutions.
"Where cost effective on the basis of use, we will purchase individual journal titles on demand instead of placing subscriptions to the journal," Younger said in a March 2002 report to the academic council. "We are strengthening existing collaborative resources on campus [and] we will also forge more direct inter-institutional borrowing."
The University Libraries have also increased the cost of copies this year to 10 cents per page with a copy card and 15 cents per page with coin, in order to cover the cost of copying. Because of increased use of electronic resources and computer printing, the copying volume has seen a steady drop from the 1999-2000 school year to the 2001-02 school year.
Despite budget cuts, the library has also been making some positive changes, including and improved library Web site. Students can now more easily find the electronic resources available to them, view their loan list and recall status and renew materials on-line rather than in person, said library officials.
In addition, the Hesburgh Library is in the process of a major renovation to its basement. The basement will reopen in Fall 2003 and will have moveable shelving storage for 7,000 volumes, 100 user seats and a renovated microform center. Younger said that the new accommodations would help increase storage space and provide an additional area for students to read or study in a comfortable environment.
All News Stories for Monday, November 18, 2002
