(Editor’s note: This is part of an ongoing series of Dateline articles examining how our campus colleges, schools and other units are being affected by state budget cutbacks.)

The good news for the General Library this budget cycle is that it will continue to purchase journals and other publications that faculty and students have come to depend on for their knowledge-intensive projects.

On the other hand, several positions will go unfilled and there will be less money for operating expenses.

George Bynon, deputy university librarian and associate university librarian for administrative and access services, said the General Library has absorbed a 6 percent cut — $668,450 — to its 2003-04 base budget of $11,153,519 for personnel, operating expenses and equipment.

“We studied creative and prudent ways to achieve this budget reduction,” said Bynon. “Above all, we sought to develop a budget that would continue to provide the depth of research information that our faculty and students demand and, at the same time, one that would protect our employees by avoiding layoffs.”

In doing so, the library reduced its base budget $419,769 by permanently releasing 14.35 full-time equivalent positions that had become vacant due to attrition, Bynon said. More than 215 staffers and librarians work in the General Library.

Another $248,681 was decreased in the operating expenses and equipment budget. The impact of this cut, Bynon said, will be “noticeable, but not immediately significant.” For instance, it may take the library longer to replace worn-out or outdated equipment and, in some cases, move publications quickly to shelves.

The General Library at UC Davis consists of Peter J. Shields Library, Carlson Health Sciences Library, the Medical Center Library in Sacramento, the Physical Sciences and Engineering Library, and the Agricultural and Resource Economics Library. The General Library includes more than 3 million volumes and is ranked among the top research libraries in North America.

In 2002-03, the library took a one-time $789,773 cut to its overall budget, Bynon said. The difference this year, he noted, is that these are permanent cuts.

Library patrons will be pleased that the campus administration exempted the library’s collections budget from cuts. The collections budget, which for 2003-04 is $5,800,632, is primarily spent on journal subscriptions and books. Journal subscriptions are a cornerstone of campus libraries because researchers depend on how recent the information is in the publications, Bynon said.

“This decision by Provost (Virginia) Hinshaw and the campus administration to exempt the collections budget from reductions reflects a significant investment in the library and its sources of information in fulfilling the academic mission of the university,” Bynon said.

Still, collection costs these days are averaging an 8 percent annual increase due to inflation, which means that when UC Davis exempts or “freezes” its collections budget from cutbacks, it has the practical effect of an 8 percent cut, according to Bynon. The problem of price inflation in academic journals has persisted for years.

Bynon noted that since he arrived at UC Davis in 1989 the library has not had to lay off any employees, even during the early 1990s budget crunch. The library, he added, is especially “sensitive” to employee workload issues.

“Before this budget dilemma our employees were already working to capacity,” he said. “The result is that we, like all campus departments, must prioritize our tasks to achieve our mission critical duties.”

Bynon pointed out that university libraries across the nation are battling the budget blues.

The problem of rising journal prices and depleting library funds is unlikely to subside any time soon, as additional cuts to the university next year are probable. In the long-term, the issue may permanently alter the way university libraries are run.

These days, more libraries, including UC Davis, are turning to electronic journals instead of print, though as Bynon notes, the savings on “e-journals” are minimal and it is inconceivable that libraries would ever do away with hard copy journals, books and publications.