Subsidy Cut for MOBIUS Consortium

A Missouri House and Senate conference committee approved Governor Matt Blunt's proposal to cut $650,000 in funding for MOBIUS, the Missouri Bibliographic Information User System (MOBIUS), a statewide consortium of 60 members, mostly academic libraries. MOBIUS executive director George Rickerson told the Kansas City Star that when MOBIUS was formed in 1998, "one of the fundamental assumptions" was that it would be a state-local partnership. MOBIUS facilitates a statewide database of library holdings, nearly 20 million books.

The elimination of the subsidy will result in a 36 percent increase in dues for member libraries, which already pick up more than three-quarters (roughly $1.5 million) of the consortium's annual expenses.