U of M library on probation

The Association of Southeastern Research Libraries placed The University of Memphis' Ned R. McWherter Library on probation again due to a significant lack of funding.

The ASERL is an association of libraries across the Southeast that banded together to pool their resources. According to its website, the group is the largest regional research library consortium in the United States.

Sylverna Ford, dean of University libraries, said that ASERL reviews data from all member libraries and decides on an expenditure threshold that the libraries must meet. This is the amount of money that must be spent on the library in the given year, such as personnel or book purchases. If a library falls below this amount, it is placed on probation and given four years to resolve the issue.

Although the threshold for ASERL libraries in 2008 was $9,009,036, The U of M library's expenditures totaled only $8,619,072.

Ralph Faudree, provost at The U of M, said The University doesn't have the funds to meet the funding requirement because of the economic recession.

"We would like to have more resources for the library - as well as all parts of The University - but that does not mean it is underfunded," he said in an e-mail.

Faudree said money was given to the library to ease budget constraints when the stimulus bill passed, pulling in $625,000 for the library in the last year alone.

Ford said this money could possibly remove the library from probation in the coming year.

"We expect to get a similar allocation in the coming fiscal year, so I'm hopeful that will take us back where we need to be so that we will be off probation again," she said. "The president and the provost are really aware of the issue and are trying to do things as well to address the problem."

The library's budget is decided by deans of the colleges and the dean of the library. Faudree said the administration understands the significance of the library as a research facility.

"The library, along with many other factors, is important for a metropolitan doctoral research university like The University of Memphis, and all of these factors are considered in building the budget," he said. "President Shirley Raines is aware of all of the factors."

Ford said increased demand on the library's electronic resources is one reason for the budget deficiency.

"We have to build and maintain print collections as well as build and maintain those electronic connections," she said. "That puts a real strain on our budget when the budget hasn't grown the same way that the resource base has."

She said the library's problems only mirror the concerns that The University as a whole has experienced.

"The real bottom line is, The University needs more money in order to fund the library better," Ford said. "The pie is shrinking all of the time, and it's really hard to get a larger piece of the pie when the demand on that pie is growing, and the pie is not getting any larger."

Library staff at The U of M voiced their opinions last week about the importance of membership within ASERL. It provides database discounts, interlibrary loan delivery agreements and interaction with other research libraries in the region, they said.

"It is definitely an important membership for us, and one that we value and would like to continue," she said.

Ed Frank, curator of special collections and faculty senator for the library, said membership is vital.

"One of the benefits to us is that we have interlibrary loan arrangements that are much cheaper to us than they would be if we had to do all that on our own," he said.

Frank said the costs of borrowing resources would be tremendous without the help of the group.

"We borrow something along the lines of 12,000 to 13,000 items every year from other universities," he said. "If we had to pay the full cost for shipping these things around, and we weren't part of ASERL, it just wouldn't be practicable."

Abby Parrill, professor and chair of the chemistry department, said increasing prices of academic journals also play a role in the library's troubles.

"Journal prices escalate every year, and in order to continue the subscriptions we already have, they have to put more and more of their budget into journal subscriptions, which cut some of the funding for books," she said. "We had to choose a huge proportion of our journals to not subscribe to."

And this is not the first time the library has fallen into financial trouble. Frank said he and other administrators brought the issue of chronic underfunding forward in the library policies committee in the early 2000s.

"We said then that if something isn't done about it, it's going to come back and bite us," he said. "And it has come back and bitten us."

Frank said losing membership in the ASERL would "just be disastrous."

"A lot of our programs have accrediting agencies for the disciplines, and if they see that the library is not funded to support research in that discipline, then (the library) can lose accreditation," Frank said. "You start losing accreditation, and you start losing students."