Library Article

WSU libraries eliminated membership in the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) and reduced the size of the administrative support staff by two positions, saving a total of $100,000 in compliance with the 2010 budget reduction goal.

“We’ve gone down from five administrative workers to three,” Beth Lindsay, assistant dean of libraries said. “There have been trade-offs though because some things like moving the printing to Cougar Copies removed a big chunk of what somebody had to do here.”

Lindsay also explained the elimination in membership in the CRL was due to use levels and demand. “A lot of their collections are humanities-based and we just don’t have the programs here.”

In addition, the Holland and Terrell Libraries eliminated reference hours on Saturdays, the last of the six libraries to offer that specific service. According to Lindsay, the library administration will monitor that change and see if any major problems arise.

With all of the logistical changes taking place and the addition of access to the CUB through the library, the library has seen growth in the number of students using the building, its resources and the website.

“We think of the website as the main branch because we can always deliver services,” Lindsay said.

Online resources have also been expanding as the library has been making a gradual shift to more resources available electronically, through e-books and online subscriptions, rather than traditional, physical books subscriptions.

According to Alan Cornish, head of library systems, even in a tight financial situation, the library is expanding some services and increasing availability of articles and other non-traditional forms of media.

“We’ve had a 25 percent increase in article requests this year,” Cornish said.

Another area of growth and demand has been with the computer workstations located in the Holland and Terrell Libraries.

“I was waiting for a new computer for a week and when I needed to do online homework, it would take me forever because people were using Facebook,” sophomore mechanical engineering major, Erik Hille said. “There just aren’t enough resources.”

Lindsay agrees that there is still heavy usage of the public computers, especially at certain hours of the day.

“We still don’t have stable funding to really do a replacement cycle and we don’t have additional funding to get more machines at this time,” Lindsay said.

While changes are still taking place and services are evolving, Lindsay said she’s grateful the libraries were able to maintain the major forms of access for staff and students. However, according to Lindsay, more budget cuts may be taking place in the near future.

“Mostly we’re just waiting to see what happens with the state revenues,” Lindsay said. “Everyone’s kind of on warning that there could be another mid-year cut, so we’re just trying to be cautious and keep everything up and running.”

Some other schools cut library services over breaks and holidays. Whether similar changes are in the future for WSU libraries is unknown.

“I think anything would be on the table if another large cut came through,” Lindsay said. “Especially is another one cam in mid-year.”

Sources:

Beth Lindsay
Assistant Dean of Libraries
509.335.6134
elindsay@wsu.edu

Alan Cornish
Head of Library Systems
509.335.1895
cornish@wsu.edu

Erik Hille
Sophomore mechanical engineering major
erik.hille@email.wsu.edu

Article Outline
1. What happened with legislature
a. Specific budget cuts
2. What happened at the university as a result
3. Effects due to changes
4. Other changes due to economy
a. Computer stations
b. Online resources and articles
5. Outlook
a. Mid-year budget cuts?
b. Closures?