Provost Barry Scherr informed College Librarian Richard Lucier Friday that Dartmouth will add $250,000 from contingency funds to the library's operating budget for the 2004 fiscal year, a change made largely in response to concerns from faculty members and students over recent financial cuts.
The added funds will primarily be dedicated to the library's collections. Though they do not solve all problems related to the budget, Scherr expressed his hope that the money would alleviate some concern.
"Every time we've been meeting with faculty, the question of the budget comes up time and time again," Scherr said. "This is something we've been planning for a while. It was a matter of President Wright and myself sitting down last week to determine what to do -- and we decided $250,000 would be the number."
According to Scherr, in recent years the cost of maintaining the library's collections has continued to rise. At the heart of the increase are periodicals and scientific journals, which can cost hundreds, and in some cases, thousands of dollars per subscription.
"The cost of serials has gone up very rapidly in the past 10 to 15 years," Scherr said. "The average library has definitely seen its purchasing power erode over this time."
Lucier added that part of the budget problem lies with added cost of buying both print and digital materials, leaving the library maintaining in a sense "two separate kinds of environments." Frequently, a digital collection costs as much as its print counterpart.
Lucier stressed the importance of continuing to look at the situation on an on-going basis, especially in respect to the library's collections. "It certainly doesn't take care of all the issues with respect to the library," Lucier said. "But given the fiscal realities, it was a reasonable response to the problem."
