When President Botman announced $2.7 million in budget cuts last month, perhaps the most sensitive point was the dismissal of 65 faculty and staff members. All done, she insisted, while adhering to a motto of “do no harm to the classroom.”
But just moments earlier, she also mentioned draining funds from what amounts to a central artery in any University’s academic profile: the libraries, which would immediately see a jolting loss of $300,000.
Botman has said that the figure amounts to a freeze on book acquisitions. David Nutty, director of USM libraries, paints a somewhat more complicated picture.
He confirms that USM’s libraries will not be purchasing much in the way of new materials through at least June, when the fiscal year wraps up. Typically, librarians would be reviewing new and recommended titles to add to the school’s collections year-round.
But it doesn’t end on that, as Botman put it, “excruciating” note. Nutty is also shelving plans to upgrade and replenish the supply of student computers at all three branches (an endeavor seperate of the technology budget, which has also been squeezed.)
Planned and much-needed furniture upgrades, as well, will be put on indefinite hiatus.
Worse, the library system must now dip into gift funds usually reserved for special purchases, in order to maintain its databases.
“I normally wouldn’t go to the gift account for something like that,” says Nutty. “But this is an extreme situation.”
Both Nutty and Botman insist there is a silver lining, in that its collection of academic journals will not be effected over the next several months.
Nutty chooses to be cautiously optimistic about the future, discussing budgetary woes only as they apply to the coming semester.
“The rest of this year is going to be tight, no question about it,” he says. “It’s not something any of us want to do right now.
But President Botman has indicated that the financial situation will be similarly bleak, if not markedly worse, in the years to come.
A Wider Net
Aside from funding, there are two topics that tend to dominate talk of libraries in the early 21st century: the shift online, where everything from books to journals to audiobooks (formerly “books-on-tape”) is instantly accessible in digital form, and laments about what’s being lost in the shift from paper.
Speaking with the Free Press last month, President Botman waxed nostalgic about the labor involved in browsing well-stocked, traditional libraries.
“Theres a personal joy that comes from roaming the stacks of a library and finding unexpected books on the shelves,” she said.
Nutty doesn’t get too choked up. For him, the transition couldn’t come quickly enough, with the total freeze on acquisitions coming after years of complaints about USM’s physical collection.
“Oh yeah,” he says with a laugh. “We get comments [from faculty] that they wish we had newer books, more materials.”
“That’s when we usually talk about electronic access.”
It’s not that digital books – be they text, pdf or audio files – cost the libraries less money. Few publishers have cut prices much alongside the format transition, even though expenses such as printing, book-binding and shipping are all eliminated.
“The big advantage is access,” Nutty says. “Because instead of having it in just one of the three libraries, and having people drive to a specific campus to use it, it’s available to all students, no matter where they live, 24/7.”
“I’m all in favor of it – its been part of my vision for where the libraries are going for a long time.”
He estimates that the school’s journal collection will be completely electronic in two to three years, aside from the few holdouts that publish only in print.
Another leap comes from a state grant issued before the economic meltdown, which will provide USM’s libraries with downloadable audiobook offerings in a copy-protected but somewhat flexible file format that can be played on PCs, cell phones, iPods and other devices.
The technology comes from Overdrive Inc., and the list of titles is still being selected by committee. The University is planning to launch in time for the spring semester.
With so much content coming from servers instead of shelves, library officials are seeing the budget crisis as a prime opportunity to better recognize and serve what Nutty calls the “two libraries.”
One is the physical space, which will need to become more comfortable and accomodating as its role becomes less about book storage and more about providing technology, facilities and assistance.
The second exists online, via the website that Nutty’s offices have managed to upgrade and expand in-house, and on the cheap, even as the administration has halted renovation of the school’s larger site due to the budget problem.
And through the library’s site, it’s hoped, USM’s students can easily access its journal subscriptions, new audiobooks, and an instant messenger application that provides immediate access to reference librarians.
That, and regular old books.
Even if USM can’t afford to buy them outright, the new site makes it easier for students to access the stacks at UMaine’s more affluent members, and beyond.
“We can now get a book from anywhere in the state, or New England, or in the country,” says Nutty. “If you get us a citation, we can usually get it to your desktop within days.”