Hard Times at British Libraries Could Do 'Severe Damage' to Research, Survey Warns
British research libraries pummeled by budget cuts, according to a report in Times Higher Education, the magazine formerly known as the Times Higher Education Supplement. A new survey of 38 libraries “reveals just how serious the situation is,” the Times reported. The fall in the British pound has resulted in “huge increases” in the costs of journals from the United States and elsewhere in Europe. Nearly 40 percent of the British libraries surveyed will cut book and journal acquisitions in 2009-10. One in five will cancel “big deals with publishing houses to access bundles of journals online.” A bundle can include hundreds of journals.
Michael Jubb, director of the Research Information Network, which conducted the survey, warned that the situation could result in “severe damage to research and teaching in UK universities.” Some libraries face journal-price increases for next year that “exceed the total of their current budgets for buying books.” The Times also spoke with Toby Bainton, secretary of the Society of College, National, and University Libraries. Since the beginning of the academic year, Mr. Bainton said, the currency’s fall had “caused havoc” for British libraries. He said he had heard stories of huge price rises — as much as half a million pounds — at some larger research institutions.
The 2009-10 academic year “is going to be the really bad time,” Mr. Bainton warned. “It is a problem for the entire institution because the only thing to cut is the big deals of journals, and that means hundreds of titles at once, which will affect researchers all over the university.”*** Ace! is a member of the EducationUSA global educational advising network affiliated with the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State. We provide free EducationUSA counseling services to students in the northern provinces of Thailand; our faculty of U.S.-trained Test Prep Experts can help you with cost-effective result-driven training programs for SAT-1, SAT-2, TOEFL, GRE, GMAT, GED, IELTS etc ***
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