The SFU Library

Board of Governors

November 26, 2009

21st Century Academic Library

■ Information commons■ Student learning commons■ Digital Research commons■ Academic Town Square

“Heart of the University”

Information Commons

“the average essay grade is …a whole 2 grade points improved over last year. I suspect this is in no small part due to you and your excellent orientation.”

Reference questions

Presentations

SFU 172,000 1,800

UBC 197,000 1,400

UVIC 57,000 321

Student Learning CommonsWorkshops Orientations

4,800 8,997

Collections

“Studies of research productivity in Canadian, British, and American universities confirm that access to library resources are significantly related to research productivity. Institutions desiring to increase research productivity are advised to target library expenditures and new technology.”

H. Dundar and D. Lewis,

“Determinants of research productivity in higher education”.

Research in higher education 39 (1998), 607.

Collections

% Library budget spent on collections

Print Volumes per student

SFU 52.9 140

VIC 48.9 247

Guelph 47.2 158

Waterloo 41.1 124

Collections use (,000)

08/09 07/08 % change

Print* 451 471 -4%

Used in library**

189 220 -14%

Equipment 164 158 4%

Online journals

2,000 2,000 0%

E-reserves 52

Collection expenditure erosion

■ Cost of maintaining collection buying power increases 5% per year

■ Increasing problem masked in past by the strengthening Canadian $ over the past few years

■ Loss of buying power 2009/10 was $1.1million■ Partial restoration of cut anticipated

(but still 15% reduction in disciplinary and general account cuts)

■ Further cut would be devastating

Collections proposals? Protect the collection budget Increase interlibrary borrowing budget

X ? Adequate annual increments.– Library and University work toward a budget model

which will smooth the impact of the vagaries in the Canadian $ value on the collection budget spending power.

Research support

■ Collections ■ Library = laboratory for the humanities■ Faculty research support

■ Storage/access for online resources created during research■ Institutional repository of research outputs (papers, jls)

“I received an emergency call from Canwest Global National TV this morning viz. escalating oil/gas prices. They were at Cambie and headed my way. I needed some current data in a hurry and contacted [the liaison librarian]. Within 15-20 minutes he found, screened and e-mailed the relevant statistics to me-- just in time for the interview.

Thanks to [the liaison librarian] and our library, SFU will again receive national television coverage.”

Thesis Defense Room

Community/international

Software development

■ Results in cost avoidance■ Supports research■ Attracts funding■ Supports SFU International Efforts

ReSearcher

Budget principles

1. Maintain/preserve services and collections

2. Maintain the ability to respond to new initiatives and increasing areas of activity

3. Maintain staff, systems and facilities to support 1 & 2

4. Identify declining activity and reallocate resources

5. Identify and reconfigure activities that can be done more efficiently

6. Reduce operating expenses where appropriate

7. Consider increasing revenue

Operating budget: risks and shortfalls

■ Computer equipment unfunded ~ $150,000pa■ Loss of yearend $$■ Reallocation of positions from declining services no

longer possible■ Loss of 1 liaison librarian position will have –ve impact■ Closed one service point (data library)■ Reduced tech. support on evenings/weekends■ Little funds for training – essential for technology, prof.

positions■ Loss of flexibility – temp positions, ‘Typical’ reductions –

clerical, travel, paper

Loss of revenues

Synergies/CFI coming to an end

Print/photocopy -$97,000 (-33%)

Fines income -$79,000 (-42%)

2010/11 reduction model with current projections (~2.5%)

Student and faculty access to collections, reference services, and resources will not be available in the late evening, disadvantaging evening students and others who use the library at that time. Technical and building support will be unavailable evenings and weekends to attend to equipment malfunctions and other problems.

Reshelving time will increase. Processing/cataloguing backlog of new materials will increase.

Non-priority gift s such as office collections will no longer be accepted.

Bennett LibrarySFU UVIC

Annual gate count (,000,000) 1.95 1.25

SFU UVIC

Main Library facility (,000 sq.m.) 16.5 30.7

SFU UVIC

Total seats main campus libraries 1,563 1,978

Bennett Library Building – recent renos

■ 1994, 1997 major renovations (fl.3, 4, 7) –university/gov■ Subsequent renos small but great improvements:

■ 2d floor instruction lab, group study■ 2, 3 floor casual seating■ 6 floor study space■ Thesis defence room■ Student learning commons

■ Funding -- endowment income, alumni grants/matches, Campus campaign, VPR (TDR), VPA (SLC)

Most recent– Oct 09 – fl. 6 study space

The new quiet student space on the 6th Floor is absolutely brilliant, but there are still many wasted areas within the library with excellent views that can be utilized. Who can students contact to request that the Bennett library gets more funding to create even more new study spaces?

Questions/comments?

Lynn Copeland

University Librarian and Dean of Library Services

copeland@sfu.ca