University librarian Gary Strong looked up from his desk with a solemn expression.
“I wish there were better news,” he said. “But this is the reality of where we are at.”
On August 4, Strong released an open letter to the UCLA community detailing plans to permanently cut nearly $1.9 million from the UCLA library system’s operating budget.
Starting fall quarter, a reduction in service hours and student worker hours will take effect for many libraries on campus, Strong said. This will mark the first time in the library system’s history that hours have been reduced in light of budget cuts, he added.
Night Powell, a popular program that allows students to stay in the Powell library study area past normal closing hours, will no longer be offered.
In addition, the library system will temporarily reduce its acquisition budget by 25 percent, Strong said. Acquiring new volumes and materials is vital for libraries to maintain their relevance and standing in the scholarly community, he said.
Strong said he is considering placing a fee on interlibrary loans, which have been free in the past.
Lastly, Strong said he has formed a team to examine the logistics of closing two library branches on campus: the Arts and Chemistry libraries.
Strong’s announcements were received with surprise and disappointment among many in the UCLA community.
“The whole thing is pretty depressing,” said Christopher Lade, a graduate student in music. “The worst part of it is that they’re going to be cutting hours.”
Lade, who works at the Music Library, said a lot of music students study at the library after their classes end at 5 p.m. Under the new schedule, the Music library will close at 5 p.m.
Lade said he was also upset that Night Powell will no longer be offered.
“So many people use Night Powell, and it’s such a disaster that they would close it. I guess I’ll just have to do a lot of stuff from home now, and I won’t be coming into the library as much,” he said.
Material engineering students Bunga Setiawan and Jefery Kusnadi said studying at home is not an option for them.
“We can’t study at the apartment with roommates around and other things,” Kusnadi said. “We both use Night Powell a lot, especially after week six.”
Kusnadi said he is not sure where he will go to study late at night from now on.
“Maybe Denny’s,” he added as an afterthought.
Some students and faculty have actively opposed Strong’s budget cut decisions.
A Facebook group called “Save the UCLA Arts Library,” which was created by two UCLA associate professors and one undergraduate student, has registered more than 2,200 members.
The group also wrote a petition to Strong and the UCLA administration on behalf of the Arts library that has been signed by more than 2,100 people.
Strong said he understands that some people will be upset by library budget cuts, but said decisions must be made nonetheless.
“This is not a direction I want to be taking the library (system) in,” he said. “But I guess I just deal with reality. I don’t see the campus having many other options.”
Strong said he and his staff have been preparing for budget cuts to the library system since 2006. When Chancellor Gene Block asked university departments to make a 5 percent cut to their 2009-2010 budgets, Strong was ready to take the hit.
His first priority, he said, was to preserve the library system’s current collection.
“As long as we offer 200 or more degrees, I have to look at library resources that will support those degrees. When the day is done, we still need a collection that retains our ability to provide access to that body of disciplinary knowledge,” Strong said.
Keeping collections housed in different locations, however, may be unsustainable under current conditions, he added.
Strong’s second priority was to preserve as much of the current library staff as possible. To balance this effort with budgetary demands, vacant staff positions will largely be left open, he said.
While severe, this year’s budget cuts were not unexpected, Strong said.
“We’ve suffered reductions since the early 1990s,” he said. “We used to have 25-plus library facilities on campus, and now we’re down to nine. This is not just happening for the first time.”
The real issue, he said, is that the state is unwilling to allocate more money to libraries and public education in general.
“I’ve watched legislators shoot themselves in the foot more than once in terms of addressing long-term education systems. Over the years we have continued to fall,” Strong said.
With the UC system being asked to cut hundreds of millions of dollars from its budget, it is unreasonable to believe university libraries should remain unaffected, he said.
As to the future of UCLA’s libraries, Strong said he could not be sure.
“If I could predict the future, then they would elect me to the legislature,” he said.
“I’d like to hope that there is a brighter future. But it’s dependent on whether there are ways for the university to find other sources of revenue beyond state funds,” he added.