By Julie Sharp, On-line Forty-Niner
April 23, 1997
Students at Cal State Long Beach are not satisfied with the availability of current journals and the adequacy and currency of the book collection in the University Library, according to a recent survey.
Henry DuBois, acting associate director of the library, said the culprits which led to this dissatisfaction were the state-wide shrinking budget and inflationary prices of the journals.
The library's budget was deflated in the early 1990s with the emergence of the recession. This led to financial cuts to UC and CSU colleges, which trickled down throughout the schools, ultimately affecting CSULB's library.
This forced CSULB's Resource Planning Process Committee, which plans the budget, to make dubious decisions about where to allocate the deflated funds.
"In 1992/93 we had nearly $15 million less in the university's general fund. The Library [and] other areas of the university were completely stripped," said Joe Magaddino, member of the RPP. "No one was happy with what we had to do."
In 1991-92 the appropriated budget for books and journals was $1.53 million.
For 1992-93 the book and journal budget hit an all time low at $934,843.
The Library could not keep up with the journal subscription quantity and the inflationary price based on the reduced budget it had to work with.
The Resource Planning Process is comprised of faculty, staff, students and the administration and prioritizes which areas are to receive the money. This year, the RPP allocated $1.2 million to the Library. "Carl Kemp and the student leadership have been very supportive of the Library," DuBois said.
In addition, the California lottery complemented the funding with $100,000. An additional $75,000 was received from donations.
Maggadino claims it is unfair to blame all of the current problems of the Library on the budget cuts.
The other part of the problem is inflationary. "Many of the academic presses are no longer publishing the journals. They are being published by profit-oriented publishers. The consequence of this is that the subscription rates are skyrocketing," Maggadino said.
According to a Financial Affairs Council report, the average annual subscription price for journals in 1993 was $150.
In 1997 the annual subscription price increased 43 percent to $215. The Library has responded to the concerns of the students by reinstating 95 journal subscriptions.
The RPP is beginning to plan the funding distribution for the 1997-98 school year.
The two student positions on the committee remain vacant.