By Norman Oder

More than one-third of institutions have received budget cuts of at least 5%

• Results delivered at Charleston Conference
• Resource savings come first
• Shift to e-only continues

The results (see slides below for summary) were presented at the Charleston Conference today by the CIBER research group at University College London and survey co-sponsors Baker & Taylor’s YBP Library Services and digital provider ebrary®. About 420 academic libraries participated in the study.

Among the survey results: 34.7% of institutions have a total library budget that is at least 5% smaller than the previous year (excluding inflation). In two years, 31.4% expect their total library budgets to shrink, while 40.1% predict stasis, and only 28.4% expect an increase. 

Saving on resources
Asked to assess trade-offs, those surveyed said they were far more likely to save on resources than on staff, services, or operations. Overall, the breakdown went from cuts to resources (40.2%), to services (35.9%), to staff (23.9%). Some 27.9% of North American respondents said they’d cut their resource budgets over the next two years, with only 15.1% in the rest of the world agreeing. Some 29.4% of North American respondents said they wouldn’t cut their resource budgets.; the rest couldn't yet predict. Outside North America, 47.9% outside North America said they would not cut resource budgets.

Most likely to see cuts are print journals, monographs, and print books, with e-books and e-only serials least likely to be cut. More than half of respondents (55.2%) said they’d accelerate the shift to e-only resources. 

North America vs. the rest
Of those surveyed, U.S. respondents represented 55.4%, those from Canada 10.5%, and those from the UK 15.2%. 

Libraries in North America indicated they spent 25.5% of their budgets on print books (including monographs); 25.3% on databases; 17.8% on e-only serials; 14% on print/electronic serials; 12.2% on print-only serials, and 5.2% on e-books. Elsewhere, libraries spent 36.7% on print books and only 15.1% on databases.

As for cutting services, libraries in North America are more likely to cut hours and then reference service (in the survey as “enquiry desk services”), while for libraries elsewhere that pattern was flipped. In cutting staff, libraries were much more likely to freeze recruitment and not replace staffers who leave than to begin layoffs.

Money issues
How to get more money? Respondents looked slightly more to gaining a bigger share of the institutional pie than seeking external funding. About half the libraries surveyed said their budgets were less than $2 million a year. Of the rest, 19% have budgets $2–$4 million; 11.4% $4–$8 million; and 14.5% above $8 million.

Comments from survey leaders
“We are proud that more than 800 institutions representing the world’s academic, public, government, and other libraries completed our survey,” said Professor David Nicholas, Director of the Department of Information Studies, UCL Centre for Publishing, and CIBER research group.

“We are extremely grateful for the support the survey has received from the world’s librarians, nearly 200 of whom provided suggestions on the topic and types of questions to ask,” said Mark Kendall, Senior Vice President, Global Sales at YBP Library Services.

Said Christopher Warnock, CEO of ebrary, “By sharing their decisions openly, this valuable information will help the libraries, publishers and services communities move towards greater transparency and improved products and services. ebrary is proud to have been able to participate in this collaboration.”