captainogbleedmore t1_j7u1itk wrote on February 9, 2023 at 12:12 PM

Reply to comment by HappilyhiketheHump in Please help support our campus libraries! by prettypeepers

Yes. Academic licenses come in a variety of flavors: 1-user, 3-user, multiple users but limited to 365 checkouts in a year, and unlimited. Some, but not all, are DRM free. A number of mainstream publishers like Penguin limit to single user, so if it is a high circulation text the library is forced to buy several licenses at hundreds to thousands of dollars to satisfy demand. There are also annual hosting fees for some vendors like SAGE if you do not maintain a database subscription.

NowIAmThatGuy t1_j7u3gc1 wrote on February 9, 2023 at 12:32 PM

I wonder if this new president has any investments in book publishing companies. Someone should check his portfolio to ensure he’s not enriching his investment portfolio by way of directing state funds towards these publishing companies. Also, libraries seem like a low budgetary expense line item. I’m sure there are programs that are more expensive than libraries. Typically athletic programs top the expensive line item at universities. Why not eliminate them if the intent is to save money while preserving the educational integrity of the institution? Just seems fishy.

captainogbleedmore t1_j7udaaw wrote on February 9, 2023 at 1:59 PM

Libraries are always easy targets to administration in k-12 and higher Ed because they have high cost for materials. Let's say I am a librarian at a small private school and my materials budget is 100k and my new president thinks that no one uses physical books anymore so I am mandated to reduce costs by 50%? Well there goes JSTOR, ProQuest, LexisNexis, and an EBSCO subscription that gave students access to more than 2 million journal articles because the easiest thing to cut is database subscriptions that are paid yearly. Libraries also pay for copyright licenses that cover the school so that you and your professor don't get slammed with fines and charges for sharing a PDF of a textbook chapter. These fees are all based on school size so the higher the FTE the higher the cost. A major school will have a library budget in the millions. We are a profession that is always on the front lines of budget cuts and public apathy and/or misinformation that fuels more cuts. My first gig as a librarian involved making substantial budget cuts due to a president like this and the students and school suffered for it. And while these are all generalities, if the school has an a program with secondary accreditation in education, nursing, law, etc. Those accreditation bodies have their separate guidelines for libraries. Nursing accreditation requirements for one call for materials to be published within 10yrs, so library staff are constantly having to weed and replenish a collection. Imagine doing that with digital books? Separately not all publishers have forever licenses. Penguin previously would make public libraries buy a new license after x-number of checkouts. The rationale being that a physical copy of a popular fiction book can only survive 30 or so circulations. That's the type of greed you're dealing with.

NowIAmThatGuy t1_j7uedyz wrote on February 9, 2023 at 2:07 PM

Thank you for educating us on the nuance of libraries. I love libraries and librarians. I would not have made it out of undergrad or grad school if not for the library and those who ran it. And my use of the library was just the tip of the iceberg of what a library does. This action by the president is appalling.

INTPLibrarian t1_j7vj4yp wrote on February 9, 2023 at 6:35 PM

As I keep reading this thread... are you me? LOL. Thank you so much for explaining all of this so clearly. Like I said, I'm not even in Vermont, but wanted to see what people were saying about this.

prettypeepers OP t1_j7vt7cr wrote on February 9, 2023 at 7:36 PM

I cannot thank you and every other Librarian in this thread for giving this information. I am writing a paper about how awful of a decision this is and how incredibly important Libraries are for everyone, and this is so incredibly important. For the google form petition that I created, I plan on attaching every comment written out by people to the end of the paper.

prettypeepers OP t1_j7vs1mx wrote on February 9, 2023 at 7:29 PM

So I only bring up the libraries here, but the news we received also highly impacted our sports teams as well. I don't really mention it just because I don't understand it further than it absolutely screws them over. This link is to the post that was made further explaining the decisions. That is a really good point you made. I don't have any idea of what Grewal did before he became VSU's president