Q. How have the Libraries been impacted by budget cuts?
A. Since 2008, the Libraries have absorbed cuts of approximately $5 million (nearly 20 percent of our State funding). In addition to these cuts, the Libraries were assessed approximately $1 million for employee furloughs in 2009-10. For 2011-12, the Libraries received a budget cut of $2 million. The campus allocated a smaller cut to the Libraries than we'd been told to plan for in order to avoid our having to cut electronic resources (electronic books, journals, and databases) and the staff needed to make them available. This reflects the continuing and growing demand for access to electronic and digital materials from faculty and students. Given the State of California's continuing fiscal crisis, the campus (and the Libraries) is expecting an additional cut in 2012-13.
Q. How have the Libraries absorbed these cuts so far?
A. Over the last year, we have closed three libraries: the Medical Center Library (April 2011); the Center for Library & Instructional Computing Services (CLICS) (June 2011); and the International Relations & Pacific Studies (IR/PS) Library (July 2011). In addition to these closures, we have: shortened library hours; consolidated service points; slowed down digitization efforts; reduced instruction and classroom support; decreased spending for information and scholarly resources; implemented cuts in supplies and equipment; reduced binding support; and dramatically cut budgets for facilities maintenance and renovation. In addition, we were forced to eliminate the campus paging system, Roger Request.
Since 2008, the Libraries have eliminated approximately 40 positions (13% of our workforce, a figure we expect to increase to 20% in 2012/13).
Q. How are Library users being impacted by cuts in service and closures? Will I get the help I need to complete my research or find a resource?
A. Cuts in library funding have unavoidably led to some reductions in service and staffing. While faculty, students, and other patrons will find the same quality of service, they also may experience longer waiting periods and lines as a result of library consolidations and staffing reductions. A top priority for the Libraries has been to protect our electronic resources budget to ensure that our users have access to the same high level of online information resources. Library staff remain committed to doing all they can to provide users with the assistance they need.
Q. The Libraries announced earlier that they would need to close or consolidate the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Library. What should library users expect?
A. Due to repeated budget cuts, the Libraries will be consolidating the Scripps Library print collections into the Geisel Library, starting in July 2012. The Scripps Library will no longer be open to the public after June 29, 2012. The newly named Scripps Archives and Library Annex, located on the 3rd floor of the Eckhart building on the Scripps campus, will continue to provide access to special collections and archives by appointment, Monday thru Friday from 9 to 5 p.m. In addition, to better meet the needs of Scripps' faculty and students, study space and delivery of library materials from Geisel to Scripps will be provided. For more information about library changes and services for the Scripps community: http://sio.ucsd.edu/Announcements/Library_Update/
Q. What library study options exist for students who regularly studied and conducted research in CLICS, IR/PS, and the Scripps Library?
A. Even with these closures, we will still have almost 350,000 square feet of space in the Geisel and Biomedical Library buildings. Since the closure of CLICS in June 2011, we have added new study and computing spaces-both individual and group-in Geisel to replace some of the seating that was eliminated. Since fall 2012, we have added 126 new workstations and 150 new seats and plan to add about 150 more individual, group, and collaborative study seats over the next year. In addition, we provide nearly 1000 study seats in Geisel 24/7 during 10th and finals weeks and are planning to open a new 24/5 study facility in Geisel in 2012/13. We are committed to doing all we possibly can to enhance existing spaces and create new study and work spaces to accommodate students in our remaining library facilities.
Q. How exactly are the Libraries being structurally reorganized?
A. In tandem with library consolidations, the Libraries have been engaged in a strategic planning exercise over the last two years that has helped to guide us in transitioning from a decentralized, discipline-based organization to one that is more efficient, centralized, and program-based. Our new structure is intended to eliminate redundancies across our organization and to consolidate services and resources into a single campus library, with the goal of maintaining excellent and responsive user services. In the future, library services and resources will be provided from four buildings: the Geisel Library, the current Biomedical Library building, the Scripps Archives and Library Annex, and our Miramar Road Storage Annex.
As part of these organizational consolidations, in 2012-13, we will be transitioning our name from the "UC San Diego Libraries" to the "UC San Diego Library." We believe this new name and structure will better represent our organization, result in greater economies of scale, and eliminate redundancies across our organization.
While we do not anticipate these internal structural changes to have a significant impact on library users, we will continue to solicit input from various campus constituencies over the next few months, in order to ensure that the transition to our new structure is as smooth as possible.
Q. When will all this happen?
A. The Libraries' strategic planning implementation process, which is guiding the structural and collections consolidation processes, has been underway since 2011. Library staff are currently engaged in the initial stages of the restructuring. We expect the transition to one comprehensive library to continue through 2012-2013. We will be also be transitioning to our new name during this time period. The consolidation of library facilities and physical collections began in 2011 and will also continue over the next year.
Q. Why are you restructuring this way and what do you hope to achieve by doing this?
A. This restructuring is intended to help position the Library to deliver the services and information resources needed by UC San Diego faculty and students with the reduced staff, financial, and space resources now available to us. Since 2008, we have absorbed $5 million in permanent budget cuts (18% of our State funding), seen our staffing reduced by 40 FTE (13%), and had to forgo 15% of our space. At the same time, we have seen steady and continuing changes in how users utilize library services and resources. These changes include an increased demand for digital services and resources and a continuing decline in the use of physical library resources. The transition among libraries from print and physical access to digital and virtual access is a significant trend, spurring major changes at academic libraries across the nation.
Q. How will faculty, students, and other library users be impacted by this restructuring? Will the level of service I receive from the Library change in any way?
A. While some library users have felt the impact of our consolidation efforts, we do not anticipate that the internal restructuring of the Libraries will have a significant impact on faculty, students, and other users. Our users will continue to have access to the many services and resources-both physical and digital-that they have come to expect from the Libraries. Although there will be some staff reassignments, Library staff will continue to provide expert and subject-based support and advice and manage and provide services across disciplines and buildings. When we have worked our way through these transitions, it is our hope that we will be able to deliver services and resources more efficiently, across all facilities. Our service model is evolving and we depend and greatly appreciate feedback from our users.
Q. Will faculty members still work with the same subject specialists or will there be reassignments?
A. While there have already been some reassignments and there will likely be more, faculty members will continue to interact with and receive guidance and assistance from expert library staff. We will continue to solicit feedback from faculty throughout this process, in order to ensure that we are providing the best service we can with available resources.
Q. Will the structural consolidations lead to layoffs?
A. While these changes will result in some reassignments and changes in staff responsibilities, our goal is to avoid layoffs to the best of our ability.
Q. How are budget cuts impacting collections? What changes should faculty and students expect to see?
A. The Libraries have been forced to reduce our State-funded collections budget by almost $2 million (or more than 20%) since 2008-09. The campus allocated a smaller cut to the Libraries than was expected for 2011-12 in order to avoid our having to cut electronic resources (electronic books, journals, and databases) and the staff needed to make them available.
Previous cuts have required us to implement a wide range of cost-cutting measures, including the elimination of print journal subscriptions duplicated at other UC campuses and an overall decrease in the purchasing of new books and journals. While these cuts have meant that UCSD faculty and students have access to a reduced number of materials here on campus, the Libraries are committed to providing just-in-time acquisition and delivery of materials, with a preference for digital delivery.
Q. Why are the Libraries consolidating their collections?
A. Collection consolidations have been necessary to accommodate our smaller footprint-from seven to four physical locations. When these consolidations are completed within the next few years, our collections will reside in: the Geisel Library; the Biomedical Library building; the Miramar Road Storage Annex; and in the Scripps Special Collections and Library Annex.
Q. What criteria are you using to make these consolidation decisions?
A. Our guiding principles for the location and arrangement of the collections are: ease of access and preferred use; proximity to the academic divisions and schools that use the materials; and the integration and clustering of collections that support complementary academic divisions.
Our focus has been on the withdrawal of only those materials-mostly older journals and monographs-that have not been used over the last decade, are available in digital format, or are available at other UC libraries or one of the UC Regional Library facilities. Our library collection coordinators, who have significant subject and bibliographic expertise, have managed the reviewing and the withdrawal process. Unique and rare materials, such as those from our Special Collections, have not been included in this review process.
Q. What has happened so far and what materials have been involved?
A. Last year the collections from the IR/PS Library and the Medical Center Library were reviewed. IR/PS materials retained on campus were transferred to the 8th floor of Geisel Library. Medical Center Library materials retained on campus were consolidated into the Biomedical Library.
Selected materials-including duplicated and dated items-from both these collections are housed in the Libraries' Miramar Road Storage Annex or the Southern Regional Library Facility and are available on request.
Q. How will the consolidated collections be arranged?
A. Over the next three years, the Libraries' collections will be consolidated and integrated in the Geisel and Biomedical Library buildings. Lesser-used materials will be stored in our offsite Miramar Road Storage Annex or added to the UC Regional Storage Facilities. The plan is to locate reference materials, actively used books, and print journals from the year 2000 and later, in the Geisel and Biomedical library buildings. Geisel collections would include Mandeville Special Collections, East Asia, arts, humanities, social sciences, engineering, mathematics, and marine sciences materials. Eventually, these materials, including those formerly housed in the IR/PS and Scripps libraries, will be arranged in one call number sequence-with the exception of reference, special collections, East Asia, and media or special formats. The collections housed in the Biomedical Library building would include biological science, medicine, pharmacology, chemistry, and physics materials. Likewise, the general collections housed in this building would be arranged in one call number sequence. The Scripps Special Collections and Library Annex will include the Scripps archives, scientific expedition reports, and other special collections, including the Hubbs collection, nautical charts and selected maps and atlases.
We are continuing to seek feedback from faculty members from academic units across campus to ensure that our thinking about the proposed location and arrangement of our collections takes diverse faculty preferences into account.
Q. What other changes to the collections can we expect to see over the next year?
A. To more effectively consolidate and increase our capacity for library materials, we will be installing compact shelving in Geisel Library during 2012. We have already temporarily relocated some materials from Geisel to the Miramar Road Storage Annex until this project is completed. These materials include social sciences and humanities oversized materials and pre-1990 bound journals from the Science & Engineering collections. While many of these journals are available online, the Libraries are providing a scan and delivery service for materials that are not. We will scan articles from those journals not available online and deliver them to the requester's desktop. If a physical volume is needed, users can request it for prompt delivery back to a campus library. Library users who wish to visit the Miramar Road Storage Annex can do so by appointment.
During this time, we will monitor requests to determine demand and use patterns. Frequently used materials will be returned to a campus library facility after completion of the consolidated shelving project. We expect it will take us at least a year to transition all of these library collections to the Geisel and Biomedical Library buildings.
Q. Where will the Scripps Library materials be housed?
A. At the request of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography community, the Scripps Library holdings will reside primarily in Geisel. After the second phase of compact shelving is completed in Geisel Library in the spring of 2013, the Scripps general collection will be moved to Geisel Library. After the Scripps Library closes to the public in June 2012 up until the time the compact shelving in Geisel Library has been completed, Scripps Library materials will remain in the Eckart Building and will need to be paged.
Q. What about the Science & Engineering Library? Where will those materials reside?
A. Our current plans call for physics and chemistry resources to be integrated in the Biomedical Library building sometime in 2013, where they will complement the existing life sciences collections in that facility. This includes the current periodicals and books. Those materials in engineering and mathematical sciences will continue to be housed in the Geisel Library building, where they will remain in close proximity to the Jacobs School of Engineering. Final decisions have not yet been made, however, and we encourage feedback from affected faculty to ensure that our thinking about the location of the collections best meets the needs of the campus community.
Q. What about the other library collections?
A . Our current plans call for the integration of the collections that remain in the Geisel and Biomedical libraries. As a result of budget cuts and the consolidations that have accompanied them, the Libraries are transitioning from a discipline-based and decentralized structure to a comprehensive library in two locations that offers a suite of services across its facilities. Consequently, our plan is for our collections to be arranged in one call number order in these two buildings, rather than by discipline. Again, we encourage campus feedback in order to ensure that the decisions we make about the arrangement of the collections meets the needs of our users.
Note: We welcome your feedback on our collection consolidation plans. Please send us your feedback at: http://libraries.ucsd.edu/collections/consolidation-qa-feedback.html You may also contact your library liaison at: http://libraries.ucsd.edu/contacts/subject-specialists.html