Academic Council hears head librarian's concerns

In a meeting cut short by the impending Founder's Day convocation, members of the Academic Council were updated on the University Library system's expenditures Thursday afternoon.

During the past decade, the library has tried to shift its resources from costs related to staffing the library to those related to acquiring new materials, said acting University librarian Robert Byrd. The percentage of the library's budget devoted to personnel has decreased from 67.5 to 58 within the past 10 years, while the percentage of the budget used for collections has increased from 26.7 to 33, he said.

Byrd emphasized that this change has been made possible by increasing worker productivity, adding that the library has also made a concerted effort to increase circulation and eliminate "shelf failure," which occurs when a book is misshelved and cannot be used.

Byrd also described the University library's standings among comparable schools, noting that the library's 1994 expenditure per faculty of $12,793 is well below the mean for 18 top colleges and universities, while the average expenditure per student is only slightly below the mean. Volumes held per faculty and per student are also slightly below average, he said, while the number of library staff members per faculty and per student are significantly higher than at most universities.

Outlining several goals for the library within the next few years, Byrd emphasized the need to address important but difficult issues facing the library.

The library should be working to "build focused collections and construct strong resources for research," he said, while it strives to move from a paper-based circulation system to one that is completely digital.

The library system also needs to address issues of space, he said, noting that Perkins has not been renovated in 25 years and is nearing the point of needing to maximize the space or undergo a serious facelift. Some libraries, like the music library on East Campus, are at capacity, he said.

Byrd also stressed that the library needs to increase its endowment, something that he said will be a key challenge for the next University librarian, a position that is currently open following the recent departure of Jerry Campbell. The library's $10 million endowment is one-fifth to one-tenth the size of library endowments at comparable universities, he said.