Library News for the Faculty

From University Librarian Gary E. Strong

In his August 4 message to the UCLA community about the 2004-05 budget, Chancellor Carnesale identified the UCLA Library as one of the areas that are vital to maintaining and enhancing the academic core. And he confirmed the Library's essential role on campus by assigning it a relatively mild cut of two percent.

This isn't just good news for the Library; it's good news for you. The role of the Library is to support the research and instructional efforts of the university. The more books we can add in your subject area, the better your research will be. The more instructional services we can offer you and your students, the better your teaching and their educational experience will be.

We have taken the chancellor's message to heart in our budget planning and have identified key priorities that will allow us to sustain our support of research and instruction across campus, from basic undergraduate courses to advanced professional programs.

The number one priority on the list is to protect our world-class collections. Prices continue to rise, and even when the collections budget remains level rather than being cut, this represents a real decrease in our purchasing power. But we're using every strategy available to us to continue to collect, preserve, and make accessible vital resources.

One of these strategies is to collaborate with other UC libraries in shared purchases, which reduce the price for all. Another is by actively exploring and promoting alternative models of scholarly communication that meet faculty needs for peer review, yet allow the author to retain copyright, provide access to as many users as possible, and enable the Library to manage inflationary increases in subscription prices. And another is by actively raising funds to create collection endowments in various subject areas, which will provide income for acquisitions in perpetuity.

Preservation goes hand-in-hand with our acquisition efforts, since frequently used books begin to deteriorate and must be removed from circulation. The conservation and preservation challenge grant we received from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has allowed us to create a dedicated conservation lab on campus. It has also enabled us to create an endowment that will ensure we can repair fragile and highly used materials and return them to the shelves.

Another priority is expanding our Information Literacy Program. Ranging from library tours to online tutorials, from in-class instruction to for-credit courses, the services offered through this program are designed in collaboration with faculty members to support their specific needs in classroom instruction. I encourage you to contact Eleanor Mitchell, the program's director, to discuss an approach tailored to your needs.

A final priority is enhancing services. We want to keep our libraries open when our users need them most. We want to create comfortable, welcoming spaces for faculty-librarian consultations. We want you to be able to reach our online resources and services from wherever you are, from an office next door to a café halfway around the world, through our redesigned Web site and new UCLA Library Catalog system.

The Library exists to support your work and your students' studies. If you have a question or suggestion about how we can help you, let us know. You can reach me by phone at extension 51201 or by email.