Faced with a stagnant budget and an ever-growing demand
for content at Eastern Michigan University's Bruce T. Halle
Library, University Librarian Rachel Cheng has found ways
to do more with less.
Cheng has worked with other universities and with public
and school libraries across the state to make more books,
videos, journals and other materials available to EMU faculty
and students at less cost and, in some cases, no cost to
the library.
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BOLSTERING ITS BOOKS: University
Librarian
Rachel Cheng sifts through
"FIRST Robots," a
new book in Halle
Library. Despite budget cuts,
Cheng
has worked to increase the library's
holdings
through the Michigan
eLibrary Catalog (MelCat)
— a
collaboration between 140-plus
school, public
and university libraries
in the state — and a one-time
$100,000 budget boost in 2006.
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"To me, the link between quality instruction and
the ability of faculty members to stay engaged in a discipline,
those things are just inseparable," said Bob Neely,
EMU's associate provost and associate vice president for
research. "For some faculty, that means research,
and the library is very important in that. For others,
it means staying up-to-date with the cutting edge of development
in their field. For me, the library is part of the soul
of the university."
In January, EMU joined the Michigan eLibrary Catalog (MelCat),
a collaboration between 140-plus school, public and university
libraries in the state. MelCat gives EMU students access
to books, videos and audio materials at all of the participating
libraries. In some cases, a book ordered one day will be
available the next.
During the first week of the fall semester, EMU students
ordered an average of 28 books a day through MelCat and,
on its end of the reciprocal agreement, Halle Library lent
out an average of 37 books per day.
Through MelCat, EMU students can access the collections
at Michigan State University, Wayne State University, Western
Michigan University and many other academic and public
libraries. The agreement gives them access to millions
of new materials.
Meanwhile, subscription rates for academic journals — which
aren't available through MelCat — are climbing
9 to 10 percent annually. The library's subscription budget
isn't, and it doesn't take a math major to realize something's
got to give. A one-time, $100,000 boost in 2006 was used
to purchase a variety of reference books and journal back
files. However, that money couldn't go toward subscriptions
because they require ongoing support.
Under Cheng's guidance, EMU has participated in several
consortium deals, which negotiate lower subscription fees
and/or expanded content for the group. For example, EMU
pays more than $250,000 a year to subscribe to 280 individual
academic journals from one publisher. But, as part of a
consortium deal, it now receives an additional 1,500 journal
titles with a nominal increase in subscription fees.
Not all 1,500 extra titles are relevant for EMU faculty
and students — one of the downfalls of a one-size-fits-all
package. By analyzing interlibrary loan records, Cheng
found that about 300 of those new titles were being used.
Adding those subscriptions one by one, she calculated,
would have raised EMU's subscription costs to roughly $1.4
million.
The downside of consortium negotiation is that, if budget
pressure forced EMU to cancel a package deal, EMU would
not only lose access to a lot of titles, the library might
need to subscribe to some "core" titles later
at much higher rates. And, despite the significant savings
of participating in consortium deals, rising prices will
eventually meet a budget that isn't growing and require
creative answers yet again.
"I don't think (the money crunch) is going to change." Cheng
said. " Advances in information technology actually add
to budget pressure by bringing lots of different
kinds of content. There are lots of new resources we'd
like to subscribe to that we don't have the ability to.
Some of them didn't exist 10 years ago, but now are the
absolute must-have for a discipline."
