South Carolina Academic Libraries Struggling in Wake of PASCAL Cut

Andrew Albanese -- Library Journal, 11/04/2008

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. Turns out South Carolina was just getting a head start on an impending global economic crisis.

With academic librarians gathering in Charleston at the end of the week for the annual Charleston Conference, we asked Rick Moul, PASCAL executive director, and Mark Herring, dean of libraries at Winthrop University, (Rock Hill, SC) for an update on how libraries, students, and faculty in South Carolina are coping. In a column in the current issue of Library Journal they detail the deep cuts they’ve been forced to make—and the cuts still to come. They also, however, detail their efforts to educate stakeholders on campus—and in the Statehouse—about the value of the consortium, a program the covers all of South Carolina’s 58 institutions, public and private, two-year and four-year—some 300,000 students, delivering $7 in return access for every dollar spent.

“South Carolina academic librarians and our allies are marshaling resources to educate legislators,” Moul and Herring write. “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.” The full Backtalk is here, and also in the November 1 issue of Library Journal.

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