As part of our ongoing efforts to address the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, the University Libraries like the rest of campus, are receiving a significant cut to our base budget in FY20-21. The Libraries’ budget is largely composed of our collections budget and personnel expenses. As a result, much of the cut will be borne by our collection development budget. I want to update you on what this means for the Libraries and our collections.
We will need to cut approximately $280,000 from our collections budget in FY20-21. The budget reduction would have been significantly larger if we had not cancelled Science Direct as we can apply the money saved to next year’s cut.
Cutting collections is never an easy process, there is no calculation that makes it painless or spares needed resources. This is particularly true when budget cuts hit in rapid succession. This year, we will need to cut much deeper to meet our goal: book budgets may need to be reduced and valuable resources will be lost. Considerations in deciding what resources to cancel will include: Whether there are alternative ways to get the information; how often a resource is used; does the resource provide access to full-text; and the historical inflation rate of the resource’s price.
Our goal is to make the process transparent. In addition to this update, the Libraries will host a couple of zoom meetings where we will provide a more detailed overview of the budget cuts. I encourage you to attend one of those meetings if you have any questions or would like to voice concerns. We will share a list of cancellations in the coming weeks for feedback and then schedule the zoom meetings.
If you have any questions, contact Jim Galbraith, Head of Collection Development: jgalbrai@binghamton.edu.
Thank you for your assistance and understanding and your continued support of the University Libraries.
Sincerely,
Curtis Kendrick, Dean of Libraries
Libraries FY20-21 Budget Reduction
