Facing Funding Shortfall, OhioLINK To Cut Resources
-- Library Journal, 2/7/2005
After years of adding resources, OhioLINK, the highly regarded statewide consortium of academic libraries in Ohio, faces a funding shortfall that will force cuts in service. In the latest two-year budget proposal OhioLINK--after years of small cuts to its funding, budget tightening among consortial members, and against ever-rising costs--faces a potential shortfall of $500,000 to more than $1 million. OhioLINK has already cut 144 of 573 titles from its Blackwell Publishing collection and 346 of 1,056 titles from Springer. Other OhioLINK resources and services, such as databases, will be affected; under the current plan there would be no funds to purchase new content. The cuts could continue in 2006, with another 800 titles from Elsevier Science, Wiley, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, and Emerald on the block--depending on the final budget. In addition to the 490 e-journals to be cut for 2005, OhioLINK will institute a membership fee for the first time in its 12-year history, beginning in July. That fee is expected to raise about $200,000 annually.
