by We all know it’s budget crunch time. It has been for years. Libraries are constantly evaluating budgets in order to find enough funds to keep resources that we have, buy new ones and support both existing and new services. We keep hearing the adage: “Do more with less”. We just can’t do this anymore. By doing more with less, we set up expectations we just can not continue to provide. We burn out our staff and impact our users.
In the face of budget cuts, libraries need to start saying “Do less with less”. This, of course, needs to be done strategically. We need to find areas we can cut reasonably and yes, this may be felt by all.
What are libraries doing? There have been some interesting cases of libraries taking a stand against the publishers and vendors and the crazy fees libraries are often forced into paying. The library system that I grew up with, a very small library system, took a stand against outrageous ebook prices and stopped buying Random House ebooks. SUNY Potsdam examined the outrageous fees that the American Chemical Society charges and decided to walk away and move to a more sustainable solution.
These examples show libraries looking at their budget and realizing they just can’t do it all. They examined options and went with what they felt was best, both for their budget and their users. There are other ways libraries can make the budget work: evaluate services, discover the actual needs of the community and focus on those. Open access is slowly becoming a better option for resources. But in the end, we just can’t do it all. Understanding your community, talking with them, as SUNY Potsdam did with their faculty, and making informed decisions is key. Tough decisions will have to be made, but less money can not mean the same level of resources or services any longer.
Update: Seems another vendor has dramatically increased their prices. Hatchette is increasing their ebook prices over 220%. I hope libraries make noise!