Florida Atlantic University Libraries Library Collections Presentation of Carol Hixson (hixson@fau.edu), Dean of University Libraries to the University Faculty Senate With input from Jeff Sundquist, Assistant Dean for Research and Collections Maris Hayashi, Head of Collection Management February 26, 2018 Budget for Collections Rate of Inflation for Library Collections (Print & Electronic) 7-10% annually 83.8% over last ten years FAU Libraries Budget for Collections 2008 $3 million 2017 $3 million To keep pace with inflation: $5.5 million needed This is information that has been widely shared here and elsewhere since August 2 In general, how often do you use the library's electronic services or resources from your office, home or other off-campus location? Faculty Survey Opened September 19; Closed October 23 Questions on collections and services Responses from 385 FAU faculty Across all Colleges, disciplines, and campuses All ranks of faculty responded We asked a set of questions relating to the use and importance of print and electronic collections. This chart shows the overall usages of electronic resources 3 In general, how often do you use the library's electronic services or resources from your office, home or other off-campus location? Responses Daily Weekly Monthly Each Semester Yearly Never 0.2487 0.46560000000000001 0.1164 8.199999999999999E-2 4.7600000000000003E-2 3.9699999999999999E-2 If the library’s electronic resources were to be significantly reduced, how much would this affect your: Very Significant or Significant Impact on: Teaching 80.34% Research 90.86% Remaining at FAU 63.08% These are the numbers for all faculty. Some variation across colleges but not huge 4 In general, how often do you use the library's print resources (books, journals, etc.)? These are the overall numbers for the use of print 5 In general, how often do you use the library's print resources (books, journals, etc.)? Responses Daily Weekly Monthly Each Semester Yearly Never 6.59E-2 0.15110000000000001 0.1731 0.28570000000000001 0.16209999999999999 0.16209999999999999 Use print at least weekly by College Significant variation by College. Arts and Letters faculty, Nursing, the Honors College still report heavy usage of print collections 6 If the library’s physical collections were to be significantly reduced, how much would this affect your: Very Significant or Significant Impact on: Teaching 61% Research 67% Remaining at FAU 46% These are the overall numbers. Less than for electronic but not insignificant 7 Impact of Print on Teaching by College However, there is significant variation among the Colleges for how important they consider print collections to their teaching 8 Impact of Print on Research by College There is also significant variation among the Colleges for how important they consider print collections to their research. We cannot base our collection decisions on the needs of only some of the disciplines. 9 How Have the Libraries Been Coping? Reducing the amount spent on monographs Since FY 13/14: 47% less spent on print books, 86% less spent on e-books, 69% less spent on books overall Supplementing the collections budget with salary savings Already used $144,000 to keep Taylor & Francis going this year Allocated $150,000 before the end of this fiscal year for print books Asked to keep aside $300,000 to put into collections next year Supplementing the collections budget with Technology Fee proposals This year, 10 of 19 Tech Fee proposals were requests to purchase scholarly content, for a total of $715,859 Last year, we were awarded $159,889 for four proposals to purchase scholarly content I have been at FAU for 2.5 years. Looking back over the past twelve years, it has become clear that the strategy has been to lessen the impact felt by faculty by reducing the purchase of new monographs. The lack of a new book is much easier to overlook than the loss of access to an entire database. As we found out when the vendor Taylor & Francis “accidentally” cut off access to their database in early January. The use of salary savings is not a sustainable funding model. For one thing, when we hold positions open longer just to generate money to pay other bills, that has a negative impact on services. The use of Tech fee proposals helps us supplement electronic collections but does not deal with our systemic issue 10 Where are we? We have not cut any electronic package to date We are committed to the President’s vision of FAU as a top-tier research institution This is a university-wide issue and not a library problem. We are all on the same side (Colleges, Libraries, Provost’s Office, Division of Research) and we need to find the solutions together We need College faculty input on the criteria and the processes for deciding what to purchase and what to cut (if we need to cut) to assist Library faculty 11 Where are we? We are losing ground in our print and monograph collections and have reached the point where we can no longer maintain the appearance of the status quo for electronic resources, even if we don’t buy any books Some disciplines have been bearing the brunt of the budget shortfall because they are heavily dependent on books for their teaching and research. The loss of access to their scholarly content has been subsidizing everyone else’s status quo for a number of years Contracts will be coming due and we project that we will not be able to pay them all. We cannot use credit with vendors Unless we get a significant and ongoing increase in the collections budget, we will most likely have to make cuts 12 Projected deficits for next 3 years based on rising costs for current electronic packages Without new funds, we will have to make cuts 13 How Do We Move Forward? Faculty ideas Request more funding from University (competing priorities (i.e. funding for Summer or support for Grad Students) from same pot of money) Work with Division of Research to increase support (long-term effort that depends on DoR growth: UF, UCF, USF Libraries get Research funding) Get grants (granting agencies expect something in return for their funds) Raise money through development (working on but no immediate fix and donors often have tightly focused collection interests) Student fee (no other SUS institution does this) Look at cost-sharing with Colleges (CoM model) Continue to utilize supplemental funding as possible to fill short-term gaps (not a long-term solution and limits ability to meet other needs) 14 How Do We Move Forward? Continue to meet with faculty (Forums, College Councils, Graduate Council, UFS, Collections Advisory Committee) Develop criteria and process for making cuts (if needed) with College faculty input. For instance: Use statistics Cost per usage Program needs Accreditation considerations P&T criteria Faculty review of lists Student success measures We are forming a Collections Advisory Committee whose purpose is to provide input to library faculty whose expertise is in building and maintaining collections for the benefit of all disciplines, all faculty, all students. The Committee will be charged to help develop criteria for making selection decisions and processes that have faculty support. This group will not be making decisions about what to cut but instead advising their library faculty colleagues on processes and criteria. 15 https://sites.google.com/a/faulibs.com/committees// university-committees/library-collections We have a Google site where we are putting all the presentations and other information we have made to various groups. The URL is long but this will be a place where anyone can track what we are doing. 16 image2.png image3.png image4.png image5.png image6.png image7.png image8.png image1.png