U. of Montana: An 8% Decrease in Budget Forcing Library to Cut Subscriptions, Acquisitions, and Programs

The 8% budget cut is university-wide except for instruction budget (0.7% cut).
From Montana Kaimin (Student-Run Daily Newspaper)

The Mansfield Library is being asked to cut eight percent of its entire budget for the next academic year, said Megan Stark, associate professor at the Mansfield Library.
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We’ve cut supplies we can cut, we’ve cut some programs and some of the student appreciation events during finals week,” Stark said.
The library is also not receiving its usual additional funding to cover inflationary costs of online journals and databases it subscribes to.
Online subscription-based content sees more volatile inflation than much of the other content the library deals with, Stark said. In previous years the University would allocate funds to the library to cover that inflation so the library didn’t have to pay for it out of their general operating budget. As a result, the library cannot subscribe to as many resources as it had previously, Stark said.
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The main difference students will notice next fall will likely be the lower amount of materials available to them, Stark said. In addition to the lower count of digital subscriptions, the library will also purchase fewer physical materials. This means students will likely become more reliant on the inter-library loan system the Mansfield Library participates in with other libraries across the state. They won’t have “the at-the-fingers access that they have now,” Stark said.

Read the Complete Article, Learn More About How U. of Montana’s Mansfield Library is Handling Cuts (650 Words)

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