It’s no secret budget cuts are being made across the board, but students might start seeing the effects now that the library has made cuts.
While many have seemed minor to some students, the library recently made the decision to cut book purchases from its budget.
“Books are the last thing we have cut,” Director of Library Services Kay Bradt said. “We made several other cuts before getting to this point.”
Prior to cutting new books from the budget, Collins Library cut binding for journals, the professional development department and travel and the reference budget, along with several other areas.
Although no additions to the library’s book collection will be made the rest of the fiscal year, Bradt said the library always will provide interlibrary loans.
Not only can materials be borrowed between libraries that share the same catalog as Baker, but a larger, worldwide network of libraries can also be used.
The only difference is the time it takes for the material to arrive.
“I don’t think that is that big of a deal,” sophomore Alex Slack said. “I think we have a pretty nice library and with the ability to get books through interlibrary loans and stuff like that, I think we will be fine.”
Even with substantial cuts in the budget, the library staff has worked to protect several of the resources students rely on most.
“The one thing we wanted to do was protect newspaper and periodicals because they are used so often,” Bradt said.
Bradt said in addition to the newspaper and periodicals, the library is working to protect all of the electronic resources.
Bradt said cuts in the library for this year have been close to $60,000.
Before any cuts were made to the library’s budget, a quarter of the budget for the year had been spent.
The first section of cuts totaled about $40,000, with the second round of budget cuts totaling about $20,000.
The electronic resources as well as the newspapers and periodicals account for nearly $190,000 of the library’s budget.
“I feel that books are important, but online resources are great for faster updated information,” sophomore Emily Hoehn said. “Students also seem to want to do research only on the Internet, and books are not as likely to be used.”
Bradt said although she is unsure of the university’s budget goals for next year, the library is not foreseeing a budget that is equal to what it’s had in the past.