Balancing Change and Budget

As we begin the third century of Georgetown University, the library is being affected both by external forces and internal needs for change. External forces translate, for the library, both into changes in service that are needed if we are to continue to provide the university community with the information it needs to study, educate, and do research, and also into economic impacts that may require us to identify the best way to operated within constrained circumstances.

To address both these issues, a major planning effort is underway in the library, under the direction of Robert Dugan, Associate University Librarian for Administration and Planning. Beginning with the mission statement adopted in January 1991 and the strategic plan approved in November of the same year, the library staff is now identifying the activities that will best allow the library to achieve the goals of this plan. Once articulated, these activities will be placed in priority sequence with costs identified, so that we can then define a course of action.

Meanwhile, more specific projects are underway. The Automation Planning Committee has completed a draft plan for the use of information technology by the library, and the Information Technology Committee of the Library Advisory Council has been actively engaged in the process of developing the plan. This summer and fall, we expect to have town meetings for both library staff and users to comment on the automation plan; the resulting document will guide us as more numerous and sophisticated information resources become available for our students and faculty.

The library's integrated online system has reached the point at which it is necessary to consider replacing it with a more advanced and less expensive system. The rule of thumb for the lifetime of automated systems is now approximately three to five years; our system is seven years old and counting. Yet another group in the library is identifying specifications for a new system, and we hope that this process will move rapidly toward the implementation of a replacement system by next summer.

Economic matters continue to be an issue. The story of book and journal prices is no longer a new one, and the university has been particularly generous with the book budget, providing an increase of 6 percent for the FY 1993 budget. The average increase in the cost of journals, however, is expected to be about 12 percent; as a result, we anticipate another round of journal cancellations during the year.

On the plus side, library supporters have been particularly generous, as you can read elsewhere in this issue. Several new book funds have been established this year, and special gifts have been made for specific programmatic improvements within the library.

Despite the problems facing higher education these days, Georgetown is in a fortunate position, and we in the library are challenged and stimulated constantly with the positive growth of the institution, and defining ways in which we can best serve the information need of our university community.