In the midst of dealing with your own budget adjustments, you may be wondering what’s going on with the libraries. At this point, we are planning for a $1.3 million reduction in the materials budget for fiscal year 2018. Having already reduced our staff by 40% in the last decade, we are unable to reduce staffing much more without significant reduction in services. The Collection Steering Committee is in the process of assessing needs and determining our best options for addressing this budget reduction.
We continue to pursue all available options to support the collections and respond to your needs:
- You may have seen the recent Missourian article about the libraries’ wish list of books that is being shared with the Friends of the Library and other potential donors. Subject librarians compiled this list, drawing from requests received in the past fiscal year. This list will be posted until August 1. You can help us by sharing the link with any you know who would be interested.
- Although you are welcome to contribute to purchases on the wish list, we encourage you to recommend additional purchases—of any sort–to your subject librarian at any time. We all maintain request lists to draw from as funds become available. We will make every effort to meet your needs as efficiently as we can.
- We are grateful for our development team and the donors who have given generously.
- We are thankful for the support we’ve received from students who voted for the Student Services Enhancement Fee. The University Libraries Student Advisory Council will help us invest those funds in student-focused services.
- We also appreciate departments and faculty who have collaborated with us in funding resources.