BackTalk: Save Our Databases

[In June 2008, LJ reported on a drastic funding cut to PASCAL (Partnership Among South Carolina Libraries), a consortium that offers database access and other services to all of South Carolina's academic libraries. With the school year now under way, we asked PASCAL executive director Rick Moul and Mark Herring, dean of libraries at Winthrop University, for an update on how libraries, students, and faculty are coping.]

From its start in 2001, what has made PASCAL such a smart program is its coverage for all of South Carolina's 58 institutions, public and private, two-year and four-year—some 300,000 students. It has proven to be one of the most efficient, collaborative resource-sharing programs in the state. For every dollar the state spent, PASCAL delivered $7 in return access.

While public higher education in the state absorbed reductions of between three and five percent for this fiscal year, PASCAL was inexplicably eviscerated, taking a 90 percent hit in its allocation of $2 million. There was no particular logic or malice behind the cut. Perhaps PASCAL flew below the radar as to just how critical we had become. Surely, we have work to do to educate lawmakers that this comparatively small amount of money is an appropriate state responsibility.

In July, PASCAL discontinued two subscriptions with fiscal-year renewals, LexisNexis Access and Access Science. We also are developing a comprehensive “disassembly” plan, essentially, a reverse-engineering of the consortium's original collection development blueprint, including a reduction in services like PASCAL Delivers, a program that made 12 million volumes available for use to any student at any academic institution within 72 hours.

The worst, however, is yet to come. Since most of PASCAL's renewals are on a calendar-year basis, the deepest cuts will hit in January. Then, South Carolina higher education will lose universal access to most of the STM and nursing resources previously funded by PASCAL. The consortium hopes to maintain some of our core databases: Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier, Gale Literature Resource Center, MLA Bibliography, and CINAHL^® through the end of the academic year. After that, we enter uncharted and very turbulent waters.

We are doing our best to alert users that the services they now rely on are in serious danger. At Winthrop University, for example, students see “endangered database” icons on every PASCAL-supported offering. Soon, those using the PASCAL Delivers service will see the same kind of icon on borrowed books. We are also notifying users through postcards, email, and conversation.

South Carolina academic librarians and our allies are marshaling resources to lobby legislators, and restoration is one of the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education's top priorities in upcoming budget hearings. In August, the PASCAL board sent a report to all college and university presidents to coordinate the message that higher education will be present in the upcoming legislative session.

Meanwhile, academic librarians statewide are also working to explain the situation to their faculties and student bodies, and some amazing, encouraging responses are developing. Students at Winthrop, for example, have developed a Facebook site called “Save Our Databases.” The undergraduate and nursing student government associations at Clemson University issued resolutions urging restoration, as has the Council of Student Leaders at Winthrop. Student groups at other institutions are considering similar measures.

PASCAL library directors have also reached out to statewide media organizations to explain the situation. In mid-August, we put a form on our web site soliciting support for our programs from end users. In two months, we have collected over 400 testimonials from students and faculty all over South Carolina.

Reinstating PASCAL funding will not be easy. Some legislators believe that if this program is so exceptional, universities should shoulder its cost. Of course, that would mean parents, students, and others would face higher tuition, and that, of course, would negatively impact higher education in South Carolina.

Especially during economic downturns, when many individuals return to school to further their education or to retool for new careers, most, if not all, students simply cannot afford to see tuition rise any higher. All 58 colleges and universities that share resources via PASCAL will do everything they can to see that funding is reinstated. The battle will be a tough one, however, as resources are scarce and the economy unstable. Like the rest of the country, South Carolina is not immune to the recent roller-coaster stock market, and PASCAL now faces an even more difficult, uphill climb.