As announced earlier this year, MU Libraries is projecting a shortfall of $600,000 in fiscal year 2009, resulting primarily from costs of journal subscriptions that are outstripping inflation rates.
However, the library system hopes to save $200,000 this year by reducing by 30 percent the amount of funding for the blanket purchase plan that enables the library to buy books from scholarly publishers at a discounted price. This strategy would allow MU Libraries to apply the $200,000 amount to the deficit the following year, said Jim Cogswell, director of libraries, in an e-mail sent Wednesday to MU faculty.
Cogswell, Chancellor Brady Deaton and Provost Brian Foster met last month to discuss what Cogswell called the “disastrous consequences” facing MU Libraries and to develop strategies to address the shortfall.
Leave a Reply