University Libraries
University of Georgia
Annual Report
March 29, 2007
Highlighted Achievements
Library Materials Budget – Continuing costs increases for books, journals, and databases
combined with budget cuts in recent years have made it very difficult to ensure the flow
of scholarly publications needed to support teaching and research. While some
reductions have been necessary, funding from the University has allowed us to maintain
adequate funding for library materials and avoid major cancellations of journals.
Collections
 Print collections continue to grow, but the proportion of funding spent on
electronic publications expands every year.
 Expanded our collection of aerial photos of Georgia.
 Use of electronic resources continues to climb, with use of electronic journals
surpassing 2M articles retrieved.
 While the trend toward electronic only access to journals has been the strongest in
the Sciences, this past year saw large scale movement from print to electroniconly in the humanities and social sciences as well.
 Combining private funds with limited state dollars, we acquired several critical
databases to support research and instruction:
 Early English Books Online provides fully searchable digital facsimiles of
125,000 books and pamphlets encompassing virtually all books and
pamphlets published in English from 1475 to 1700.
 American Periodicals Series Online includes digitized images of over
1,000 American magazines and journals published between 1741 and
1900.
 Digital National Security Archive contains important declassified
documents, totaling more than 400,000 pages, central to U.S. Foreign and
military policy since 1945.
Digital Library of Georgia – Based at UGA, the Digital Library of Georgia works with
GALILEO, the Department of Public Library Services, the State Archives, and other
partners to develop digital collections that focus on the history and culture of Georgia.
These collections can be accessed at dlg.galileo.usg.edu. Recent projects include:
 Beauty in Stone: Industrial films of the Georgia Marble Company.
 Minute books from the Athens Woman’s Club, 1912-1920.
 Early Walker County Papers (Cherokee Land Lottery Deeds)
 Centennial Alumni Catalog provides biographical information on matriculates of
the University of Georgia during its first century (1801-1901)
Work also continues on the Civil Rights Digital Archives. Supported by a federal grant,
this is a comprehensive effort to digitize and present primary information about the Civil
Rights Movement.
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Student Learning Center – The gate count in this facility surpassed 1.8M, an increase of
20% over the previous year.
Development – In the past twelve months, the Libraries have raised nearly $4M in private
funding and gifts-in-kind.
Strategic Plan Changes
There have been no changes to the Strategic Plan.
The current Strategic Plan can be found on the Libraries Web Site at:
http://www.libs.uga.edu/staff/strategic.html
The Five-Year Program Plan is available at
http://dataserv.libs.uga.edu/assessment/fiveyearplan.html
The four goals listed in the Five-Year Program Plan are:
Goal 1: The Evolving Collection: Blending Access, Ownership, and Preservation – The
modern library collection is a mix of traditional print and a growing body of electronic
publications. Our challenge is providing the best blend of these resources in a package
that is easily understood and used.
Goal 2: The Teaching Library: Building Partnerships – The complexity of modern
information technology has required librarians to expand our original role as custodians
of books. We need to continue to actively seek opportunities to interact with faculty and
students and collaborate with them at all stages of the learning process and with all
sources and formats of information.
Goal 3: The Strengthened Heart of the University: Library Buildings – Even with
increased electronic resources, the library as a place is critical in higher education, as
evidenced by the Student Learning Center. We need to provide facilities that support a
community of scholars.
Goal 4: The Empowered Staff: Investing in the Staff and Faculty of the Libraries –
Librarians, archivists, IT professionals, and other staff provide services and programs that
are as vital as the collection to the mission of the University. We need to ensure that this
valuable group is trained, compensated, and given the resources they need.
Progress in Program Priorities
As requested, following is the text prepared for the FY08 budget process, edited slightly
for brevity.
The mission of the University Libraries is to provide students and faculty with the
greatest possible access to recorded knowledge using technology and facilities that
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encourage research, study, and discourse. To that end, we have identified the following
program priorities:
Ensure an Adequate Budget for Library Materials
The University Libraries have two distinct budgets. First, as with all campus units, there
is a budget for Personnel and Operations. Second, there is the budget for Library
Materials. This second budget is a University-wide asset because it ensures access to the
scholarly record that is essential for research and instruction.
The flow of books, journals, and electronic resources is much like the utilities of
electricity and water that the University depends upon for its day to day operations. As
with these utilities, scholarly communication is beset by uncontrollable cost increases.
The price of publications, especially journals in both print and electronic form, continues
to rise at a rate beyond the cost of living. Across all types of publications, we see
increases that average about 5% per year.
These continuing cost increases, combined with budget cuts in recent years, have made it
difficult to maintain the level of purchases needed to support research and instruction. In
recent years, one-time funding combined with an increase to the base budget in FY06 has
allowed us to avoid significant journal cancellations.
Inflation for journals and databases will continue in FY08 – about 7.5% for journals and
about 6% for other serials. After a long lull, we expect that the price of books will also
rise, but we do not have a reliable inflationary factor to use, so we are leaving projected
expenditures for books at the same level as this year.
Without additional funds, we could be forced to cancel a significant number of journals
and databases.
While the Libraries administer the Library Materials Budget, it truly is a University wide
resource that provides the books, journals, electronic resources, and other publications
that constitute the flow of scholarly and scientific communication.
It should be pointed out that the requested increase would allow the maintenance of the
prevailing level of acquisitions, which is appropriate to the University’s programs and
curriculum. However, as new programs are added, especially in the health sciences and
in engineering, this level of acquisition may prove to be inadequate. Also, there have
been significant electronic publications that we have not acquired due to lack of funds.
These will be addressed as a special initiative below.
Increase Classified Staff Salaries
Salaries for classified library employees are painfully low and do not reflect the
sophisticated and complex activities that are required to organize, preserve, and interpret
library resources and services. The work frequently requires a college degree and many
of our employees have significant supervisory responsibilities. Despite these
responsibilities and requirements, 45% of our classified staff are within $3,000 of the
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University’s lowest base of $19,000 and 57% are within $3,000 of the base of their
classification minimum salary (with 45% of those actually at the base).
Our turnover rate in FY06 was 29% among classified staff. Salary is the number one
reason given for leaving a position in the Libraries. A recent study found that staff are
satisfied with their work, with the organization, and with how their values mesh with the
Libraries. However, many seek to leave because of low salaries.
We have received approval from UGA HR to raise the pay grade of the library
classification family. We redirected funds for this purpose last year and will try to do the
same this year, but any additional funding would be welcome.
Increase Library Faculty Salaries
The median salary for librarians employed by the University Libraries has fallen
dramatically in recent years. In FY2000, we ranked 63rd out of the 113 members of the
Association of Research Libraries. In FY07, we have fallen to 104th.
Increase Student Wage Budget to Meet Minimum Wage
Assuming that the Federal Government passes the increase to the minimum wage and
assuming that the final act matches what has already passed the House, we will need to
increase our expenditures for student assistants by $60,000 a year for each of the next
three fiscal years to match the phased increase of the minimum wage from the current
level of $5.15 to $7.25.
Expand Library Hours
The Task Force on General Education and Student Learning included a recommendation
(II.1.10) to keep campus venues open for more hours. This past year, the hours of the
Main and Science Libraries were extended from Midnight to 2 a.m. Costs estimates have
been prepared to support expanding the hours of the Student Learning Center to 24 hours
a day from Sunday through Thursday. The Library component of these costs is about
$40,000.
Expand and Improve Available Space
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Remodel Main and Science Library Entry Floors. A recent survey found that students
are put off by the appearance of the Main and the Science libraries. Further, a recent
national survey of students asked what facilities were important in deciding which
University to attend. The library was cited by 53.5%, second only to the facilities that
housed their major.1 Obviously, having an attractive library can enhance recruitment.
MRR requests have been submitted to improve the appearance of the entry floors of
these two buildings.
David Cain and Gary L Reynolds, “The Impact of Facilities on Recruitment and Retention of
Students”, Facilities Manager (March/April 2006) 54- 60.
(www.appa.org/files/FMArticles/fm030406_f7_impact.pdf)
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●
New Fine Arts Library. With the construction of the new Art School, most of the
faculty and students who use the art and music collections will be located on East
Campus. To best meet their research needs, it would be ideal to construct a new Fine
Arts Library adjacent to the Schools of Art and Music. It is estimated that such a
building would cost about $12M. If the University will designate a site for this
proposed building, the Libraries could provide some private money to prepare a
preliminary design that could then be used in an attempt to raise the $12M privately,
in cooperation with the Schools of Art and Music.
●
Special Collections Libraries Building. This building was added to the Regents list of
capital projects in 2002 and has been moving up the list. We are committed to raising
$12M privately toward construction of this building, one-third of the original
projected cost of the building. To date, we have raised $9.6M for construction and
are working to have the remainder pledged or in-hand by the end of this fiscal year.
We have also raised over $5M in endowment funds that will support the collections
and services in the building once it is constructed. Much of the design of the building
is complete and we anticipate that full design drawings could be prepared in a matter
of months.
●
Collection Storage. Shelving in the Main and Science Libraries is very tight. The
Library Repository provides overflow shelving, but it will be full in a few years. The
Special Collections Libraries Building will resolve this growing problem, but it could
be three to five years or longer before it is complete. We will continue to monitor this
situation.
Adequately Staff Student Learning Center
Funding was provided, starting in FY04, to staff the library component of the Student
Learning Center. However, the University was only able to provide “bare bones”
support, which was about $60,000 short of what was requested. If possible, funding to
reach adequate staffing would enhance this heavily used facility.
Assessing Effectiveness
Five Year Review – The five year review of the University Librarian and Associate
Provost was completed this past year. While very positive, the review did mention a few
areas of concern, notably the role of the Science Library. A task force has been
appointed within the Libraries to focus on this issue.
Seven Year Program Review – A program review of the Libraries is currently underway
by a committee of faculty. The results should prove valuable in future assessment efforts.
LibQUAL – The Libraries have just completed participation in the latest round of
LibQUAL, a national survey of libraries that attempts to measure service and collection
quality in a broad context. The results from our previous participation in 2004 proved
very useful and resulted in our addressing several issues, including ease of access to
electronic resources. The preliminary results of the latest round shows that we fare well
compared to our peers and that we have improved in several areas that were of concern in
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2004. In this latest round, faculty and students are most pleased with the quality of
service and with instructional services. The two biggest areas of concern that are
emerging from this latest round are the size and scope of the collection and the quality of
the physical space in the Main Library and the Science Library. We are fortunate that the
Seven Year Program Review Team will be able to utilize the findings from LibQUAL.
In addition to LibQUAL, the Libraries undertook other surveys and assessments,
including another extensive survey of users of the Student Learning Center. These
studies can be accessed at the Libraries' Assessment Steering Committee's web site at
www.libs.uga.edu/assessment.
wgp
3//29/2007