Berkeley Library in Major Money Troubles
The Daily Cal brings us the belated story on the funding troubles being faced by the Library, in an article called, "Balancing the Books". I say belated, because the Berkeleyan had nearly the same article over two weeks ago: "Books in chains (and we don’t mean Borders)" Not that there is anything wrong with having the Berkeleyan beat you to a story by half a month! On the bright side, the Daily Cal had a much better pun headline.

The two articles are rather similar, so you can read either one to get an idea of the problems our libraries are facing. Here is a brief rundown, with information culled from both articles:

• "The library’s operating budget was slashed $1.4 million this year, leaving the budgeted $4 million behind its funding level two years ago. "
• The Library purchases around 100,000 new books a year, but currently has a very large backlog (about 20,000 books) because they don't have enough staffers to get all the new books catalogued.
• "More than 700 printed academic journal titles have been slashed or reduced this year."
• "[University Librarian Tom] Leonard foresees no major cuts in service hours at Doe, Moffitt, or Bancroft libraries, despite these damaging reductions. Operating hours, however, are being shaved an hour or two at the smaller libraries, and some services are being reduced at libraries large and small. Reference help has been eliminated at Doe in the evenings, for instance."

In spite of the rather drastic budget cuts faced by the University, the administration has done an admirable job of maintaining our high level of academic excellence. Limiting freshmen enrollment, cutting money spent on outreach efforts, and raising student fees are all ways the Univeristy has sought to offset the deficit they face without damaging the education we are receiving.

There have been more and more signs that our current lack of funds are beginning to impact the education here at Berkeley. Along with the decrease in Library funding, there has also been reports of well-regarded faculty members departing Berkeley for higher salaries elsewhere.

The worrisome thing is that there is no indication in either article that the lack of funding and attendant Library woes are something that can be easily reversed.

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