Academic libraries, not just public libraries, being affected by the economy

Library Journal has an interesting article about how the economy has affected the University of California Berkeley libraries and how people responded. Due to budget strains, the university decided to close many libraries on Saturdays and to limit exam period hours at one library. Well, many students, parents, and faculty did not take kindly to these cuts. A group of people occupied one of the libraries in protest of the reduced hours. Also, parents of alumni donated $80,000 so that the libraries could return to the previous hours of operation. The decisions to cut hours and limit access at the libraries have now been reversed due to the work of these people.

This article made me wonder how many other academic libraries are facing budget concerns. Will more and more libraries have to make decisions similar to those made by the University of California Berkeley? If so, how will these decisions impact students and faculty who depend on the libraries for study, research, and resources? Budget problems could result in cuts other than just reduced hours. For example, maybe an academic library will have to reduce the number of databases it subscribes to. Overall, budget cuts could potentially cause major changes at academic libraries. Librarians and patrons alike will have to deal with the changes.

The University of California Berkeley was able to recover from the cuts it made, largely due to very generous donations. However, not all academic libraries will be able to find donors to give large sums of money. The University of California Berkeley is a very prominent school so it was able to get donations. I do not think the library of a small college with less exposure, for example, would be able to get the same kinds of donations. Thus, many academic libraries will have to find different solutions or be forced to cope with budget cuts and their affects.