Dollars and Sensitive Comments

Budget

This week we received official notification from the university about our budget for the year.  We had been told to expect a 5% cut and we have budgeted for that cut.  There is good news and bad news.  The bad news is that we will have to “give back” 6% of our state funding this year.  The good news is that only 3.5% of that give back is permanent.  In other words our budget will drop by 6% this year but appear to rise by 2.5% next year.  I have kept the collection budget essentially flat this year by strategic reductions in operating expenses and by using “savings” that we have accumulated in our gift and endowment funds.  Next year, however, our “savings” will be gone and there will be fewer operational expenses that can be cut.  My top priority this year will be to explain our budget situation to the administration and to seek increased funding in order to avoid devastating cuts to the collection.

Appreciation

Last week I got a call from Susan Mcafee, one of our community users.  She is a semi-retired science writer who now lives in Tucson.  One of her reasons for moving to Tucson was the depth of our library collection!  Ms. Mcafee also mentioned that we have an outstanding staff who have been very helpful to her!  Of course we all know this, but it’s nice to hear from one of our users!