Re: Letter to B. Tiffney and L. Coldren regarding the Library
 

Bruce Tiffney has shared with us your letter of April 8, 1998, in which you discussed the crisis state of the Library and asked for faculty response. Bruce suggested we direct any comments directly to you.
 

We greatly appreciate your time and efforts in sending this letter to campus faculty and administrators, as we believe that increased collaboration with faculty and administrators on campus is crucial to our success. We are proceeding in these challenging times to continue to expand beyond the Library's traditional roles to provide proactive service and instruction to both the campus and local communities.

One of the recommendations in the final report of the Library Review Committee is that the Library "participate fully in campus planning." We strongly concur with this recommendation. In order for the Library to plan effectively to serve the campus community, it is essential that we be made aware of campus planning efforts, such as consideration for addition of new programs or expansion of existing departments. In turn, we can communicate to faculty and campus administration trends and costs of information technology and access. We also are in a position to advise on standards and services essential to the construction of a new library building. Therefore, we recommend that a representative from the Library be appointed as a non-voting member to CEPAP, to the Committee on Capital Projects, and to the Campus Planning Committee.

In response to your specific request for help in identifying interim "definite, reasonable expenditures that would improve the physical facilities of the Library, enhance the Library collection, and improve the abilities of the Library to meet teaching and research needs," the LAUC-SB membership met and identified the following, in a prioritized order:
 

1. Collections

The Library will need an additional $708,000 for the collections budget just to avoid serials cancellations next year. This amount was in the 1998/99 budget request that was sent to Donald Crawford on April 22. This year the Library received $321,800 from the campus in one-time money in order to combat inflationary increases in the book budget and offset a serials cancellation project. It should be noted, however, that the $708,000 requested will only maintain the Library's existing serials subscriptions for the 1998/99 academic year (serials prices inflate an average of 10% per year). In order to improve the inadequate state of collections, and place the Library on par with other major research universities, additional permanent funding is essential.
 

2. Librarian Staffing to Address University Teaching and Research Needs

Due to critical shortages of professional librarians, it has become increasingly difficult to maintain the level of service that faculty and students expect and require. According to the 1996-97 Association of Research Libraries statistics, our professional staff levels have fallen so low that UCSB Library now ranks 102nd of the 110 ARL libraries in numbers of librarians per FTE students, and last in the UC system. Although we have a committed staff, librarians are now covering multiple collection areas outside their own area of expertise, with little time available for developing necessary communication with faculty in these areas. There are no librarians with necessary subject expertise for several of the language collections. We cannot keep up with the increasing demand for instruction, and are hard pressed to support and undertake new programs and initiatives. We are also attempting to address the increasing availability of collections and materials in digital format without a metadata access specialist, a position currently being designated or recruited by a large number of academic libraries. At minimum, it is critical that the Library augment the professional staff by filling three of the many vacant librarian positions (humanities, sciences and social sciences).

Salary savings are being used to pay for library automation. We can no longer afford this stopgap measure. We must have an ongoing source of funding for telecommunications infrastructure. Although we realize that past staffing levels will not be attained, rebuilding some of the human resources is necessary in order to maintain programs and services.
 

3. Space

The Library is out of space. An ad hoc committee has been formed by Executive Vice Chancellor Crawford to present a proposal for a new library building. In the interim, we propose the following, much of which was addressed in the recommendations of the Library Review Committee:

• Rental of a new offsite storage facility. The Annex, our present facility, is inadequate both in terms of space and climate controls, thus a threat to our valuable collections.
• Investigation of compact shelving for the first floor of the Davidson Library.
• Investigation of the possibility of moving some library functions to an off-campus site.
   

As the Library is one of the main sources of computer access for students, it is necessary to have an infrastructure adequate to support a research institution of this size. Since there is no separate budget allocation for telecommunications expenses, funds have come from salary savings. A separate budget allocation would enable the Library to:

• Renovate the building to allow for telecommunications upgrading, such as wiring for accommodation of portable computers
• hire additional systems personnel
• purchase new computer equipment as needed
   

The current library budget cannot support the Library of the 21st century to the degree to which the campus community has come to expect. We realize that there are limited funds available for the facilities and equipment that these proposals require; however, critical needs for additional funding exist. To this end, we address the following funding options:

• Make the Library the focus of a capital campaign effort by the campus which would reduce the budget impact on the campus
• Increase activities in the pursuit of extramural funding. In the past, the Library has successfully acquired funding for the development of digital collections, the creation of two library computer classrooms, and for the acquisition and access of unique and notable collections.
• Involve librarians and library administrators with activities and priorities of the joint College of Creative Studies/Library development officer.
• Develop a library outreach program to build an off-campus constituency, fostering possible donor relationships. In conjunction, organize fund raising activities in the library for specific projects and/or proposals (e.g., to create a new "named" learning center).

Again, thank you for your concern regarding the crisis situation in the Library. Please contact us if you have any questions or would like further details.
 

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