[Prodev] Declining Budget and Services to SRLs

[Lester, Lorraine]

To Shaun's question -- I guess if anything we have not cut back on service.
Our hours are long, are reference staff are few and we work long hours on
the desk.  Gone are the days of the two hour desk stint.  So one horrible
solution has been working harder with fewer people.  Energetic  Capital
campaigns initiated by a law school that recognizes the law library as a
vital and probably the most visible part of the law school's role in the
community is critical. While our alumni are not going to be the largest
source of financial campaigns, there are foundations, grants, etc. as well
as the business community.    We are putting more energy into money saving
through strategic collection development -- cancellation of practice
materials, duplicate sets, serial titles that may be covered in other serial
titles, purchasing paperback rather than hard covered monographs,  -- but we
are not cutting service to any category of patron.  We are feeling the
impact of thin staffing in adding new initiatives -- that we are not able to
do at the moment or at least not in an organized way.  We are cross-training
like mad -- our director has literally become the electronics librarian
after our electronics staff person left;  I do collection development, some
serials management, as well as a great deal of reference and faculty
research.  We may be looking for a technical services/ serials/cataloger
supervisor who can also do reference/ research, and teach.  
Lorraine Lester - University of New Mexico  

-----Original Message-----
From: Shaun Esposito [mailto:shaun.esposito@law.arizona.edu]
Sent: Thursday, February 06, 2003 1:48 PM
To: prodev@aallnet.org
Subject: [Prodev] Declining Budget and Services to SRLs


I have been lurking on the list all week, reading carefully the thoughtful
comments everyone has made.  I am addressing this question specifically  to
my fellow public academic law librarians, but I suppose it applies to all
the other folks who serve a variety of clients.  As with most other academic
law libraries, our primary focus of service is on our law students and law
faculty.  Our ability to serve and collect for them and still keep serving
members of the public, including SRLs, has become more and more difficult as
we are facing major state budget cuts this year and next.  Increasingly, we
are getting less and less funding from state tax-based revenues and more and
more from student tuition and alumni donations.  We are currently engaged in
strategic planning for the next three or so years, and we are taking a very
hard look at the services we can realistically provide in this new financial
environment.  I was wondering how other folks are dealing with decreasing
financial support and the demands of primary users (law faculty, law
students, judges, etc.) balanced against the needs of SRLs and others who
use our libraries.

Shaun Esposito, J.D., M.S.L.S.
Head of Public Services
Law Library, James E. Rogers College of Law
University of Arizona
P.O. Box 210176
Tucson, AZ  85721-0176
520 626-5551
FAX:  520 621-3138
e-mail: shaun.esposito@law.arizona.edu
web:
http://www.law.arizona.edu/library/internet/library_info/bioResults.cfm?Last
Name=esposito

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