ByKORINA IBRAHIMCAISUNIVERSITI MALAYSIA SARAWAK

Budget Cuts

The act of reducing budgeted expenditures

– Online Dictionary

Budget cuts weaken libraries’ purchasing power

• libraries are cutting on book budgets • canceling serials subscriptions • and letting go of databases

“The quality of a library rests not only on the quality of its collections but on the expertise of its staff. A staff reduced both in numbers and in its average level of experience contributes to decline of service quality”

- Leon Litwack Chair

Committee on Library Academic Senate,

1996-97.

Staff cuts

Decline of overall service quality

•reduced hours of opening in main library •reduced hours in branches •reduced hours at service points •reduced the number of rostered service points •reduced research/reference support to faculties •reduced reader education •using technicians instead of professionals •no longer displaying new journals •put cap on free interlibrary loans, then introduce charges •introducing charges for interlibrary loans •closing branch libraries and merging into main library

Raising income targets !

• increasing interlibrary loan charges to users • increasing interlibrary loan charges to other libraries • selling online services to borrowers • providing services to other institutions • increasing fee-based services to outside users • charging for database prints • charging for training (for example for Information Technology training

Malaysian Situation

Λ

Deal with it !!!

•Prepare for cuts before they happen

•Making cuts to the collection budget

•Continue developing for the future

CAIS

Have a collection plan in place

Know how the collection reflects the library’s purpose and policy

Draw Principles and Reductions Strategies

- identifies strengths and weaknesses of the collections.

-demonstrates that funds are being spent wisely

-collections meet the university’s teaching, learning and research information needs

Book Collection Review

Usage Statistics

Collection Mapping

Collection Analysis

Program Mapping

Collection DevelopmentPlan

Reductions

Incorporate feedback

from F/I/C, staff, and students

Reduce monograph purchases

Cancel serials

subscriptions

metrics inmaking

cancellation decisions

Eliminate overlapping

content

retain as much "unique"

content

Principles and Reductions Strategies

Evaluateindexing/abstractingservices and database content

Printed Matl

Printed Ser

eSerials

Online DB

Media

eBooks

Which of these budget categories is our #1 priority?

Developing a Strategy for making Cuts

• Who will make the decision?

• What type of cuts will be made?

• Decide on a process!

• Communicate the rationale!

Nature of the cuts

• One time

• Short term

• Long term

•Prepare for the future of library services

•Choose between print or electronic resources

•Develop an organizational structure and staffing plan that will guide the Library for the next five years

•Identify additional opportunities for efficiencies in existing workflows.

-Dr. Michael Stephens Assistant Professor Graduate School of Library and Information Science Dominican University River Forest, Illinois.