UCLA University Librarian

Now that the academic year is about to begin, I want to update you on the difficult decisions the UCLA Library is making to implement our 2009-10 budget.

The Library depends on state funding for almost ninety percent of our budget. Our non-salary allocation for 09-10 has been cut by five percent, or $1.8 million. In addition, we must come up with just over $1 million this fiscal year to cover charges for energy, deferred maintenance, increases in fringe benefits costs, and employer contributions to retirement. Thus, the total reduction we must plan for comes to nearly $3 million, or about eight percent of our overall budget. Note that these figures do not reflect the salary reductions mandated by the UC Office of the President, which are being taken centrally.

In making these reductions, our primary concern is to sustain the excellence of the Library’s collections, services, and staff in support of UCLA’s students, faculty, and staff, and we are determined to ensure that the Library emerges from this crisis strong, relevant, and sustainable. The following actions are being taken with those goals in mind.

Collections: I am holding back twenty-five percent of the acquisitions allocation from state funds, for a potential savings of nearly $2 million. The reductions are being applied differentially across collections and disciplines to preserve our ability to provide resources essential for teaching and research and to address the immediate needs of faculty, researchers, and graduate students. We will also attempt to sustain all joint purchases and licenses we are committed to with other UC libraries to retain access to many highly used electronic resources. While this is a significant cut and the first such reduction in the Library’s history, our liaison librarians will work closely with you to respond to your requests for essential items and to acquire them and made them available as quickly as possible.

Hours: Though reduced, hours have been set to ensure broad access to collections, services, and research and study spaces and to correspond with instructional schedules and usage patterns. The four largest libraries will be open Monday through Thursday from 7:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., closed on Saturday, and open Sunday from 1 to 6 p.m. Night Powell, the College Library’s extended-hours reading room, will open for tenth and final weeks during the fall quarter. Hours for the Eugene and Maxine Rosenfeld Management Library will remain unchanged from last year. All print reserves will be housed in one of the large libraries in order to remain accessible to all students, and electronic reserves will be available 24/7, as always, as will electronic resources, online reference assistance, and user self-services.

Campus Libraries: To address current reductions and plan for possible future cuts, we have begun to examine how the Library can meet its campus commitments with fewer physical locations. Internal study teams have begun to examine the service and collection issues associated with shifting the collections, services, and staff of the Arts and SEL/Chemistry libraries to one of the large libraries. The process will also include consultation with affected constituencies and discussion of the options.

Staffing: We have not filled vacancies for some time and have limited recruitments to a very few critical positions; that will continue.

I will post updates on major developments, and further information is available on the Library budget Web page at http://www.library.ucla.edu/about/budget.cfm .

I very much appreciate your expression of support for the UCLA Arts Library.

The UCLA Library depends on state funding for almost ninety percent of its budget. The allocation for 2009-10 has been cut by five percent, or $1.8 million. In addition, the Library must come up with just over $1 million this fiscal year to cover charges for energy, deferred maintenance, increases in fringe benefits costs, and employer contributions to retirement. Thus, the total permanent reduction the Library must plan for comes to nearly $3 million, or about eight percent of our overall budget. Note that these figures do not reflect the salary reductions mandated by the UC Office of the President; those reductions are an additional $1,100,000.

The wording in the August 4 announcement on my blog was very specific that “with the current reductions and potential reduction in funding in future years, we must now begin to examine how the Library can meet its campus commitments with fewer physical locations on the UCLA campus. Study teams will be appointed to examine the service and collection issues associated with the closing of the Arts and Chemistry Libraries.”I have not decided, nor did I announce, that the Arts Library would close. In fact, that library remains open and will remain open during this academic year.

I have appointed an internal study team to examine the service and collection issues associated with closing the Arts Library. Once this work is completed, we will begin a consultation process, which will hopefully engage a broad campus discussion of the options. Studying the situation is an action the UCLA Library must take in order to address this unprecedented crisis in the university’s state funding. Regardless of the physical facilities, however, the Library’s primary goal remains to offer collections and services to support all of UCLA’s acclaimed academic programs.

I am working in close collaboration with the deans of the Schools of Arts and Architecture; Theater, Film, and Television; and Humanities with the objective of keeping the Arts Library open in its current location and exploring the appropriate future for the collections and services that it deserves. A donor has stepped forward to assist with funding for the current academic year helping keep the Arts Library open in its present location. I hope that others will join these efforts. This combination of support is very encouraging.

I want to reiterate that our primary concern remains to sustain the excellence of the Library’s collections, services, and staff in support of UCLA’s students, faculty, and staff. However, difficult choices must be made, and there will unavoidably be pain for all UCLA Library users. I hope that you will join us at the UCLA Library in voicing our concerns about the overall impact on our collections, staff, and services to the university.