Libraries cut back on expenses, staff

Budget cuts caused UNM’s ranking among research libraries to plummet and claimed five permanent positions, making the accommodation of this year’s 1.8 million projected visitors more difficult.
University Libraries ranks 78 out of 113 research universities, according to the Association for Research Libraries. The ranking measures total expenditures for print, electronic books, journals and other media and is down from the previous ranking of 59. UNM spent $5 million less than the $11.4 million average other major research universities spend, according to the ARL.

Martha Bedard, University Libraries’ dean, said the library makes do with what it has.

“Obviously, with a relatively small and reduced budget, that affects our ability to buy materials,” she said. “It is unfortunate because we are so far below the American Research Association Library ranking. One of the impacts is that we keep going further and further down. We are already way down there.”

University Libraries’ labor reductions are part of budget cuts that began in 2008, totaling more than $950,000 and reducing the department’s staff from 127 to 91 full and part-time employees.

During the same time, the department experienced a spike in visitors from 1.2 to a projected 1.8 million, Bedard said. She said that fewer staff members equals fewer available services.

“We are working hard to get our folks employed on the front lines,” Bedard said. “We lost all these people, so we have to allocate manpower where needed most.”

Like other departments, University Libraries also reduced telephone expenditures, training and travel budgets and methods of purchasing material.
“In the old days, major research libraries like us used to try to have books, journals and electronic resources to be on hand when needed,” Bedard said. “Now we buy when a specific need arises.”

Student Andrea Maestas said buying research material when it’s needed saves money and reduces excess stock.
“However, by doing this, this is limiting the students in the amount of information available to them on campus,” she said. “The more information available, the better opportunity it is for the student to learn. I still find most of the library staff to be helpful despite recent budget cuts.”  

Bedard said she is working with other deans to ensure students do not absorb the bulk of the cuts.
“We know more cuts are coming,” she said. “We have to do the right things with less.”