University Library Committee Meeting: 3rd February, 2011

The University Library Committee met on 3rd February. Ken Frazier, the Director of the General Library System (GLS) gave on overview of the current budget crisis that the GLS is facing. There will be no State funding for acquisitions again. This is the 12th year running without legislative funding to the libraries for research. The GLS is currently looking into various private money options. It was able to raise only half a million dollars in gifts and acquisitions. He also pointed out that the GLS is looking into closing down a few libraries, but then realized it would cost more money to close down a library. Other important facts and points that were raised or pointed out during the meeting:

1) L&S is a facing a 8% budget cut as compared to the previous year

2) 65% of the current GLS support staff will retire soon. This turnover will be one of the big problems that the library will face in the near future.

3) The UW Law library now slipped to 50 percentile position among all the universities in the US.

A survey held revealed that students were grateful that the College library was open on the recent Snow day and the library saw significant number of students using its services on that day.

Sharad Punuganti