Louisiana Budget Woes Affect Database Funding, LSU, and LIS School
By Lynn Blumenstein Jul 14, 2010Louisiana is facing drastic cuts in state revenue, and library-related higher education spending is feeling the pinch.
LOUIS: the Louisiana Library Network, the statewide multitype library consortium that supports database subscriptions among other services for 47 public and private academic libraries, is facing a budget crisis.
The state Board of Regents (BoR) announced June 25 that it would withdraw the $2.7 million it was scheduled to provide to LOUIS for FY 10-11. That sum represents two-thirds of the LOUIS budget; the rest comes from membership fees.
LOUIS funded for transition
However, this decision was modified June 30; $500,000 was secured, but this would support only about two months' worth of database subscriptions.
The $500,000 represents "transitional funding" and BoR's executive committee authorized BoR staff to "work with system and campus officials to provide the additional funding needed for the library network" for the current fiscal year, according to a BOR statement.
The BoR budget has been reduced by a total of $17.6 million, "resulting in layoffs and the reduction or elimination of 11 programs," according to the statement.
Cutbacks trickle down to LSU
The BoR also announced a new performance-based formula that would affect funding allocations for academic institutions.
Twenty five percent of the total amount now would be linked to performance criteria that followed metrics determined by the GRAD Act: the number of degrees in science, technology, engineering, math, and health related disciplines; research & development grants; workforce development focus; number of overall graduates, and transfers to four-year institutions.
Meanwhile, Louisiana State University (LSU), Baton Rouge, has identified $46 million in possible budget reductions, including $20 million from academic programs, and the elimination of hundreds of jobs for FY 11-12 in anticipation of further cuts in state aid. This represents a decrease of 23 percent in funding for all LSU campuses.
The higher education budget has lost $270 million because of declining state revenue, according to the Baton Rouge Advocate.
SLIS in danger
As LJ reported in May, LSU's chancellor proposed that LSU's School of Library & Information Science (SLIS), the only one in the state, be eliminated in order to save money. The SLIS closure originally was scheduled to be addressed at the July 16 meeting of the LSU Board of Supervisors but will not be on the agenda until a later meeting, SLIS dean Beth Paskoff told LJ.
In the meantime Paskoff and other SLIS supporters are spreading the word about how crucial the LSU program is to the state. It would cost much more for organizations to have prospective librarians to be educated outside the state, Paskoff recently told the Baton Rouge Business Report, given that its in-state tuition is much lower than at peer institutions. Some 85 percent of SLIS graduates remain in the state.
On July 13, the ALA Council adopted a resolution "strongly opposing" the elimination. According to a statement, "the ALA recognizes that free access to information, both in libraries and via the internet, is essential for state citizens’ welfare, literacy, education and communication, which is provided by professionally educated librarians. LSU SLIS graduates make significant contributions to the preservation of the history of the state in government and local archives; without their work, future generations will not have access to the records of the past and the present."
