While I agree with the sentiment that appeared in library committee minutes at our sister institution -
that is, if the choice is between periodicals and staff, obviously the staff need to be preserved -
I’m beginning to wonder, are serials always the first to be cut from academic library budgets during difficult times?
The academic library where I work is cutting
-staff positions (currently and hopefully only through attrition)
-computer footprint (college-wide cut of 11% of machines)
-some electronic resources (based on usage statistics and cost)
-all print journals that can be subscribed to in online format
-some memberships through which we receive serial publications
-almost all journal and monograph binding
-and they’re investigating moving some of our online journal subscriptions to a pay-per-view model
A moderate reduction to the book acquisitions budget will also be made.
You’ll begin to notice that the sub-department of serials (2 FTE), while we’ll likely be keeping our jobs, will bear the brunt of the cut in materials budgets.
So, we’ll have our jobs (I hope), but what exactly will we be doing when our job responsibilities are so reduced?
Is this similar to what’s happening at other libraries?
