| | Issue #21.25 :: 06/18/2008 - 06/24/2008 | Sssshhh! Quiet!
Online Library Program Cut 90 Percent, to Dismay of Educators
| BY BILL DAVIS
| Shhh! Quiet! The state’s virtual library isn’t closed — yet.
For the past four years, the General Assembly has designated $2 million per year for a library-friendly program called Partnership Among South Carolina Academic Libraries, or PASCAL.
The program has allowed a consortium of 57 of the state’s public and private universities, colleges and trade schools to purchase access to dozens of online databases, such as LexisNexis, as well as online journals numbering in the tens of thousands.
Thanks to PASCAL, Clemson engineering students have had access to the latest research in bridge building. Medical University of South Carolina students could get various medical journals. Greenville Tech students and staff could rely on the Internet and other schools to expand their library’s virtual and real-world holdings.
By buying in bulk, higher education in South Carolina has been able to get huge discounts from online vendors. One librarian called the savings remarkable.
PASCAL has been a real boon to academic librarians across the state, as it has allowed them to dedicate more of their budgets to maintaining and expanding their collections, librarians said. Additionally, libraries were able to better stretch their collections dollars, because they no longer had to purchase duplicate tomes that had found homes in sister institutions.
But now, like an overdue book, the money has to go back. The $2 million had been cobbled together from one-time, non-recurring dollars in the state budget that recurred, well, four budgets in a row.
For the past four years, that had been enough, as the state’s economy and tax revenue collections remained strong. In 2007, the state budget received $1 billion more than expected, increasing it to a record $7 billion.
But then the national economy, gouged by soaring gasoline prices and other factors, began to falter. The state’s Board of Economic Advisors released a set of economic projections in late spring that trimmed close to $100 million from the state budget this year alone.
Lawmakers stripped budget fat and turned away earmarks such that old favorites, like the Spoleto Festival and Special Olympics, received nary a dime in the 2008-09 budget. PASCAL fared a little better, but not much. Lawmakers didn’t cut it out completely, but they came close. For the next fiscal year, the program will receive $200,000, a 90 percent cut.
As a result, Mark Herring, dean of libraries at Winthrop University, said he expected his school’s access to online databases to drop from several dozen to just three or four.
Herring said the effect would ripple to cut off access to needed books and journals across the state, especially in rural sections of South Carolina where populations and institutions have a harder time supporting a larger academic library.
Herring worried that the 10 percent budget was akin to life support, and that PASCAL would die if it didn’t receive more funding next fiscal year.
PASCAL director Richard Moul said the impact had already begun to be felt, as several contracts have lapsed. But he said the good news was that some of the online vendors have agreed to try and work something out, allowing libraries another year of access in hopes of re-signing the contracts next year.
Moul, who said PASCAL returned nearly $7 in services and access for every $1 invested, added that access to the databases and journals was crucial because content found there can’t be divined from public sites like Google, because so much of the material is licensed and proprietary.
Some of the larger schools will probably come up with funding on their own to cover some of the lost access, according to Moul. But that will be more difficult when this year’s statewide budget cuts hit higher education, leaving less discretionary income, especially at smaller institutions.
Moul saw more than a souring economy at play in the cuts, saying there had been a national trend of ebbing state support for higher education, particularly in South Carolina.
Lamented Herring, “You’d think that in a $7 billion state budget, legislators could find $2 million for such a worthwhile program.”
State Sen. Wes Hayes, R-York and a member of the Senate Education Committee, agreed. “We’ll try to find more funding in next year’s session,” Hayes said. “We need to do a better job by our libraries, higher ed and K-12. I’m going to make it one of my priorities and I’m optimistic, we all are, that next year’s economy and budget will be better. But we have to be wary of rising gas and food costs.”
With $500 million slashed from the state budget over the past three years thanks to cuts to state sales and income taxes and the elimination of the grocery tax, extra money might be tough to come by — especially because the Board of Economic Advisors recently put the state $78 million behind already grim collections projections. More worthwhile programs may soon join PASCAL on the cutting room floor.
Bill Davis is the editor of SC Statehouse Report; he can be reached at billdavis@statehousereport.com. Let us know what you think: Email news@free-times.com. | |
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