University of North Carolina Libraries Absorb a 12.7 Percent Cut in State Funding
By Michael Kelley Sep 2, 2011The University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill libraries are trying to adjust to a new budget that the university librarian fears could hamper research and weaken the library's technology infrastructure.
The FY12 budget, which began July 1, reduces state funding to $25.2 million, a cut of $3.7 million (12.7 percent) for all the campus libraries—the main library (University Library), the Health Sciences Library, and the Law Library.
As a result, Sarah C. Michalak, the university librarian and associate provost for University Libraries, has:
— cut the materials budget for the sysytem's seven million-volume collection by $2.2 million
— canceled 2100 journal subscriptions
— eliminated 25 vacant positions (staffing has been reduced by 40 FTEs over the past three years, from 300 to 260).
"While this is surely the largest cut I've ever administered, a lot of other entities in the university had cuts of a much higher magnitude than ours so I feel very strongly that the administration, particularly the provost [Bruce Carney], did everything possible to hold our cut down," Michalak said. "Relatively speaking, I feel wonderful. I just about melted in gratitude and relief when he told me 12.7 percent," she said.
The total cut to the university's state appropriation was 17.9 percent, or more than $100 million. State appropriations account for slightly less than a quarter of UNC's total operating budget. The libraries also have other sources of revenue (in FY10, for example, total library expenditures from all sources was $41.8 million).
"I think the provost's office may have protected the libraries a little bit," Carol Jenkins, the director of the Health Sciences Library, told the Daily Tar Heel. "I think they know that a cut to the library hurts everybody because we embody the school's central purpose."
Nevertheless, Michalak, who has been the university librarian for seven years, has two prevailing concerns.
"Getting the kind of material faculty need for their research is absolutely critical, and we have to put money back into acquisitions as things turn around," she said. Although the core research mission has been maintained, Michalak said that researchers in specialized areas are going to face a delay in accessing materials.
"The other big concern is staffing to maintain the technology infrastructure," Michalak said, noting that the library has many digitization projects as well as a data preservation infrastructure.
"You can't say, 'Oh, we'll cut the systems department,' like you could 30 years ago, because you can't serve up your collection if you don't have a technology staff. That's my big fear and worry," Michalak said.
Among the vacant positions eliminated were some IT spots.
"We protected the tech department over and over again, but in this last big cut there were a couple of vacant positions that we had to take to meet our goals. Now one of my top priorities is to get funding back to cover those positions. We've got to do it," she said.
Avoiding layoffs, however, was a bit of a silver lining, despite the extra duties employees have had to assume in order to maintain services.
"There was a pact between me and the staff," Michalak said. "The staff would help in reallocating positions and doing without positions that came open if we didn't do layoffs, and we succeeded," she said. "But it's been a challenging process."
Tara Bhupathi, a recent graduate of the School of Law, which canceled 1100 journal subscriptions, told the Daily Tar Heel that she would not have been able to graduate without an up-to-date collection at the Law Library.
"For keeping current with up and coming issues, it's imperative that we have updated journals and information available," she said.
Michalak said the library's leadership team is preparing to step up its "culture of assessment" in order to help forestall future cuts.
"The provost and the chancellor are members of the choir as far as the library goes, but we do have to prove ourselves to the state and the legislature," she said.
