To the Editor:
My heart bleeds for the big libraries with budget problems ("Libraries Explore Big Ideas to Overcome Small Budgets," The Chronicle, November 22). But my heart is broken over the crisis at the community-college level in California. The 2009 budget cut to the 110 community-college libraries' funding for electronic resources was 100 percent of the $4-million they shared for database subscriptions. Those who have the least lost the most, and no one even knows it happened.
The Council of Chief Librarians of the California Community Colleges presented a resolution to the California Community Colleges Board of Governors on November 2 which asserted that the loss of funds will cripple the ability of the community-college libraries to provide essential resources to students and faculty member—resources that are expected to be available at college libraries, that will continue to be found at University of California and California State Universities libraries, and that are especially needed to adequately serve students engaged in distance learning or learning through centers and other locations.
Johanna Bowen
Library Director
Cabrillo College
Aptos, Calif.
Comments
1. mbelvadi - January 05, 2010 at 12:13 pm
Let me guess: "they don't need this anymore because everything is on the Internet now". My heart too bleeds for the library staff and patrons. I would love to see a presentation by some librarians in the Calif community colleges a year from now at a conference, explaining how they dealt with this. But there's probably no money for them to attend conferences either. Let's hope this is a one-year blip only.