Library at bottom in resources

     The library, the cornerstone and main attraction of the GCSU campus, is among the bottom of state universities in resources available.
     SGA is planning to rectify this problem by instating a library resource fee that would tack on a $10 charge to student’s fees and provide a generated revenue of $116,000 to get the library headed in the right direction.
     At the moment, the fee has been put aside due to the economic situation in the state.
     “We on the task force were asked to discontinue work on the fee,” Bill Richards, professor of library science, said. “We were asked to draft a proposal to have one when needed, but the state and the Board of Regents have instituted budgetary restraints. It is just not in the budgetary climate to put forth a proposal. The timing is not right. It will put on the shelf until a different budgetary climate arises.”
     The fee, which originated in fall 2007 in the University Service Committee of University Senate, will be instituted in the fall semester of the 2009-2010 school year if approved.
“The generated $116,000 a year will get us started,” Alicia Torcia, SGA secretary, said. “After a couple of years, the fee will drop. This is not a permanent fee it is only temporary. I would guess in three to five years the fee would disappear once the library’s resources have caught up.”
     The service committee’s task was to draw a proposal to increase the library’s funding so that GCSU could buy the available resources to support its student body.
As of right now, the library’s collection of journals, books and media resources is substantially inadequate and do not support the school’s academic programs.
     Many departments within the university need certain journals to be accredited and the chemistry department needs to upgrade its journal subscription in order to maintain its accreditation.
     “The chemistry department requires a whole collection of journals known as the American Chemical Society,” chemistry and physics department chair Ken McGill said. “It is a whole package of journals. Currently, we carry the minimal number to be accredited and are in danger of losing accreditation.”
Supporting evidence of this notion comes from the fact that   GCSU’s library, compared with other universities in the University System of Georgia (USG) and the Council on Public Liberal Arts Colleges (COPLAC) libraries, provides a small volume of library resources and borrows a disproportionately amount of resources from other libraries.
     The average number of volumes (books and journals) held per Full-Time Equivilent (FTE) student by USG state universities was 59.5, while the GCSU average was 42.9 per FTE student. The average for COPLAC libraries was 94.6 per student.
     Moreover, GCSU students must rely significantly on interlibrary loans from other USG schools to meet their needs. Among USG universities, GCSU borrowed 5,750 items from other libraries. The second closest school in this category was Columbus State University with 4,857.
     The revenue generated from the fee, if granted, would be used to improve the availability of journals, books, media and database resources.
     With the creation of such fee, a committee would be made to oversee the appropriate spending. A student library fee advisory committee would be formed to make recommendations on the use of the revenue. The committee would consist of five librarians who have collection development liaison responsibilities between GCSU’s four colleges and five students appointed by SGA to represent the concerns of the student body.
     SGA has gone through many measures to gauge the students’ approval of the proposition. The organization conducted both an electronic survey through myCATS and a manual survey.
     The electronic survey reached an overwhelming dissenting response as 80 percent of the 1,000. Participants frowned upon the idea, but there was discrepancy involved in performing the survey. Voters were allowed to vote more than once, and several disapproving entries were recorded at the same time or seconds after one another.
     The manual survey received opposite results. SGA set up a station outside the library and polled students in person on two questions: does the library need more funding and would you pay a fee to increase funding. Out of 150 students, 121 said yes to both questions.
     The library has already approved the fee. The next step for approval would lie in the hands of the SGA Senate.
     “The main concern that will be debated amongst the senate will be if the fee is considered service or academics,” Ryan Greene, SGA president, said. “If it is deemed a service, then it will come from student fees, but if it is seen as academics, then the money should not come from students.”
     If SGA approved the fee, the proposition would have to go through university senate, the president (who has already tabled the proposition once), the mandatory fees committee and the Board of Regents before it is finalized. If the resolution is not passed then SGA would have to determine another way to find the money to eclipse the libraries lack of resources.
With this long road ahead, Torcia believes this is a matter that deserves immediate attention.
     “A university is an educational system, and the library should be the main service the university provides to make the institution successful,” Torcia said. “In general there is a need to upgrade the library’s resources. Students are in support of that, so it is important to solve this problem as soon as possible.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Apr 11 2008. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry