Challenges for Libraries FINAL March10

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Challenges for academic librariesin difcult economic times

A guide for senior institutional managers and policy makers

www.rin.ac.uk

March 2010

In association with


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Acknowledgments

The ocus groups which orm a key base o evidence or this guidance wereacilitated by Proessor David Nicholas and Dr Ian Rowlands o the CIBER team atUniversity College London, along with Dr Michael Jubb rom the RIN.

The guide is available at www.rin.ac.uk/challenges-or-libraries

Hard copies can be ordered to distribute to colleagues, email [email protected]


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Contents

Summary 41.

Introduction 62.

The nancial position o libraries 73.

Library strategies 94.

The value o libraries 165.

Conclusion6. 17Further inormation and resources


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1. Summary

This document is based upon data gathered in the UK and internationally, whichwas considered by senior librarians in a series o ocus groups held in late 2009.It explores how academic libraries are experiencing and responding to nancialcuts.

There are our core messages:

Ater a decade o growth in budgets and services, librarians now expect a sustained period1.o cuts. Library budgets have risen over the past ten years although not as much as overalluniversity income and expenditure as both the volume and range o library services haveexpanded. Librarians rom across the higher education (HE) sector now expect budget cutsover the next three years.

The scale o the cuts means that libraries must rethink the kinds and levels o service they2.provide in support o their universities missions. The scope or urther simple eciency savingsis small, and so librarians are having to think more strategically about:

the balance o expenditure on inormation resources on the one hand, and stafng on theother. The balance varies signicantly across the sector, and there is a close relationship

between stang and service levels

whether and i so how to sustain existing kinds and levels o services while at the sametime developing new services to meet new needs. Many libraries across the sector areconsidering cuts in services; but they need to ensure that sta ocus more on user-acingunctions, and to develop a more detailed understanding o the costs o their activities

the squeeze on book budgets, and how to meet the student demand or core texts. E-bookscould help ease this problem, but publishers policies on pricing and accessibility areinhibiting take-up, and

t he costs and sustainability o current levels o journal provision. Cancelling large numbers

o titles or a whole big deal will give rise to considerable opposition. But librarians arelooking at various options to reduce the costs o their current portolios.

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3. Library directors rom across the sector are keen to use the current nancial diculties as an

opportunity to rethink what the library does, and to do things dierently. But they have as yetew concrete proposals that will transorm services or yield large-scale savings.

They are seeking to develop a closer understanding o the relationships between libraryactivities on the one hand, and learning and research outcomes on the other. Librarydirectors are increasingly keen to nd ways to demonstrate and communicate the value otheir services in achieving institutional goals.

They have been developing new kinds o services to support institutional missions, butlack o resources may constrain urther development. Support or open access initiatives,or data curation and preservation, and or training sta and students in a rapidly-changing

inormation environment are all at risk.They want to develop deeper co-operation with libraries across the sector. Suchcooperation is probably the only way to achieve signicant cost savings while at the sametime sustaining momentum in developing new services to meet the needs o their users.

4. Library directors need the support o senior managers across the HE sector, as well asrom publishers and other inormation providers, in addressing the challenges as well asthe opportunities they ace. Sustaining world-class inormation services is o undamentalimportance to UK universities and their success in teaching, learning and research. Librariesand their directors have a critical role to play, but they cannot do it all themselves. Leadershipand partnership with champions rom across the HE and inormation sectors will be critical tosustaining the outstanding position o UK universities.


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2. Introduction

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Libraries have or long played a central role in the lives o universities, in supporting learning,teaching and research. Since universities themselves vary considerably in the nature, range andscale o their activities, it is not surprising that their libraries too come in many dierent shapes andsizes. Along with the rest o the HE sector, however, all o them have experienced over the pastdecade a period o unprecedented change. They have transormed their operations as they haveresponded to the opportunities o the digital revolution, and urther challenges lie ahead.

Like the rest o the sector, however, academic libraries are now acing a renewed and intensiedperiod o nancial stringency. In recent months, a number o bodies, including the ResearchInormation Network (RIN), have been gathering evidence about the nature and scale o thenancial and other challenges that libraries are acing in these new circumstances. The RINhas also organised, with the help o the Society o College, National and University Libraries(SCONUL), a series o ocus groups to consider this evidence. The groups were run by expertsin the eld, and careully organised so that, together with senior librarians, we could examinein detail the evidence rom the latest reports and rom an international survey undertaken by theCIBER team at University College London (UCL). We also took the opportunity to interrogateparticipants on the changes they are making to deal with these nancial challenges.

We have tested our ndings with other representatives o the library and inormation communities,

and with some senior university managers; and we are condent that they are robust andauthoritative. They also provide important messages or all members o those communities, and tothe HE sector as a whole.

This paper thereore seeks to alert senior managers and unders in the sector, as well as librariansand publishers, to the key ndings o this work. They show that the current nancial climate arising as it does at a time when libraries are acing major changes in what they do and the skillsets they need raises dicult issues that library directors must take the lead in addressing. But ithey are to resolve the issues successully they will need the help o other senior players in the HEand inormation sectors.


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3. The nancial position o libraries

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Over the last ten years, UK universities net expenditure on libraries has grown signicantly, butnot nearly as ast as universities overall income and expenditure. SCONUL and Higher EducationStatistics Agency (HESA) statistics show that expenditure on libraries has risen rom a total o322m (3.0% o total university expenditure) in 1997-98 to 550m (2.1% o total universityexpenditure) in 2007-08. Such gures may not show the ull picture, since the structure o manyuniversity library, inormation and IT services have changed, with mergers and de-mergers, overthe last decade. Nevertheless, it is clear that many libraries have made considerable eciencysavings even as they have expanded the volume and range o their services. For example, they haveexploited the opportunities oered by the digital provision o content: the total number o serialtitles subscribed to by UK university libraries nearly tripled in the decade up to 2007-08, to nearly1.5 million. At the same time, extended opening hours including 24 hour opening particularly atkey points in the academic year have become common.

Sustaining such levels o provision, however, comes at a cost. The big deals that have broughtsuch an expansion in the numbers o scholarly journals provided by most libraries typicallyhave built-in price increases o 5% or more a year. Rising costs or journals has been a long-standing problem or libraries, o course: but what is new is the diculty o making cuts in journalsubscriptions within the context o the big deals. And the RIN calculated ater a survey in 2009that the all in the value o the pound had brought or a group o universities in the Russell and 94Groups a urther increase in costs o over 15% or their current portolio o serials.


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The nancial picture or libraries in the current year is mixed. When UK respondents were asked inCIBERs international survey to report on their changes to their budgets this year as compared withlast in cash terms 29% stated that their universities have provided a cash increase, 36% that theyhad a standstill budget, while 36% reported cuts, in some cases o 10% or more. When it comes tolooking orward two years hence, the picture becomes much more gloomy: 52% o UK librariansexpect their budgets to all (with most expecting cash cuts o 10% or more), and only 9% expect anincrease. Our ocus groups conrmed this picture, with directors rom across the sector reportingthat they were being asked to model cumulative cuts o between 5% and 10% a year. They wereclear that they cannot achieve this simply by seeking more o the kinds o eciency savings theyhave made over the past decade; there is not enough at to cut any more. Rather, they will haveto look radically at the kinds and the levels o service that they can provide in support o theiruniversities missions.

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4. Library strategies

Alongside the proound changes aecting the HE sector as a whole, there has been a sea-changein the provision o library and inormation services or sta and students in UK universities over thepast decade. The digital revolution means that readers now expect immediate 24/7 access to a widerange o such services. Further social, economic, educational and technological developments including the growth o social networking, o virtual learning and research environments, o cloudcomputing, and o ubiquitous mobile computing presage continuing and intensive change inthe next ew years. Librarians key concerns, as they ace the kinds o nancial pressures outlinedabove, are to ensure that they sustain high levels o service to both sta and students in their hostuniversities; and that they can continue to innovate and exploit new technologies so that theirservices keep in step with their competitors not only in the UK but in the rest o the world.

Looking or eciencies

Evidence rom across the sector shows that libraries have already achieved signicant eciencysavings through such measures as sel-service or loans. Some have undertaken undamentalbusiness process reviews, and several members o our ocus groups were planning such reviewsin the next ew months. They were clear, however, that the scope or achieving urther eciencieswithin individual institutions is limited, and that larger-scale savings must come in the orm o

shared services in areas such as library management systems, management o digital resources,and shared cataloguing. Perhaps the biggest savings could come in the orm o sharing in theacquisition o resources, particularly those in digital orm. There is widespread enthusiasm inlibraries or the development o shared services o this kind, and a bid has been submitted to theHigher Education Funding Council or England (HEFCE) or the initial stages o their development.It is not yet clear whether it can or will be unded in the current climate.

The balance between content, stang and services

The balance o expenditure varies considerably across the HE library sector, in accordance withthe varying missions o their host institutions, as well as or historical reasons. SCONUL statisticsindicate that the proportion o library budgets devoted to the acquisition o books, serials and otherinormation resources averages around 36%; but there is considerable variation around that mean,rom under 20% in some small institutions to over 50% in some research-intensive universities,particularly those with a heavy ocus on science, technology and medicine. The other majorcategory o expenditure is on sta, and the proportions here vary similarly, rom around 30% toover 70% in some small specialist institutions.

Stang levels are o course closely related to the kinds and levels o services that libraries provide.

We ound a widespread view that in libraries where sta represent a relatively high proportion o

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total expenditure, that proportion will have to all. But some members o our ocus groups alsopointed to the need or an appropriate balance between content and services. For unless they havesta with the skills necessary to deliver the kinds o services that students and academics require,libraries will be unable to provide eective support or institutional missions. And as libraries acethe need to develop new skills, the demand or old skills does not go away.

Books

At some universities, there have been policies to protect the budgets or inormation resourcesabove all else, partly in order to sustain and improve the student experience. SCONUL statisticsshow that book budgets have come under increasing pressure across the sector, however, asexpenditure on journals has risen; and there are concerns across the world about the uture ormonographs. It may be that e-books will ease the problems that libraries ace here, particularly ortext-books and course readers; and important experiments are under way in the orm o the JointInormation Systems Committee (JISC)-unded e-books observatory. But both in our ocus groupsand more widely, librarians express rustration that publishers policies on pricing and accessibilityare inhibiting take-up. Hence there is a widespread view that libraries need to work together withpublishers to promote innovative thinking on new models and routes to content.


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These are critical issues or students, because they want ready access to core texts that appear onreading lists. The National Student Survey (NSS) has already provided students with a powerulconsumer voice, and the Governments proposals to give them and their parents more inormationabout provision at dierent universities will strengthen that voice urther. Library provision eaturesstrongly in students perceptions o the value o what they receive at university; and what studentssay that they want above all is more o the books and other resources they need to support theirstudies, and 24/7 access to them. The evidence rom the NSS and other surveys suggests thatsuch issues will eature ever-more strongly in student demands, rom postgraduates as well asundergraduates.

Scholarly journals

Serial subscriptions account or up to 70% or more o library expenditure on inormationresources, in the Russell and 94 Groups in particular. The big deals which provide access to thewhole o a publishers portolio o journals have increased enormously the range o titles availableto members o universities in all parts o the sector. But they take up increasing proportions o totallibrary budgets again, especially in research-intensive universities and leave little margin oranything else. Readers, academics in particular, now expect to have immediate access to most o

the journals in their specialist area, and libraries nd that nearly all o the titles to which they nowsubscribe are read, even i only by small groups o readers. Any suggestion o major cuts in theportolios o journals to which libraries subscribe thus gives rise to vocal hostility.

Nevertheless, we ound a widespread belie that current levels o journal provision may well beunsustainable, especially or some smaller institutions and those which are teaching-led. Responsesto surveys and our ocus groups indicate that there is intense pressure across the sector to reducecosts by abandoning print copies o journals, and cancelling subscriptions to lowly-used titles.Libraries are thus looking intensely at usage data beore making decisions on renewals; and insome less-well-unded institutions especially, the prospect is that some big deals will be cancelled.

Our ocus groups conrm the evidence rom surveys, that librarians across the sector are lookingvery closely at the costs o the big deals and how they might be reduced. For they view theseemingly-inexorable increases in the prices charged by publishers as unsustainable. Most o thedeals with the larger publishers are negotiated through regional consortia or centrally through JISC,under its National Electronic Site Licensing initiative (NESLi2). Individual libraries then decidewhether or not to subscribe to the deal. Although the negotiations are conducted by proessionals,some members o our ocus groups especially those rom teaching-led universities areconcerned that the deals do not represent good value or them, and are considering the possibilityo negotiating individually with publishers on their own account.


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But our ocus groups also expressed concerns about the condentiality clauses that seek to preventuniversities rom sharing with each other inormation about the costs o the deals they reach. Manylibrary directors consider themselves involved in a war o attrition with publishers; and we oundsome talking about the possibility o concerted action to tackle the lack o transparency about theterms o big deals. Nevertheless, they are aware o the risks i they try to break ranks, not leastbecause the UK is a relatively small part o the global market or publishers; and in other parts othe world, especially China and India, publishers are experiencing strong growth in their markets.

Hence only by acting in concert with others in the UK, and perhaps overseas, do libraries seemuch chance o achieving signicant savings in their deals with publishers. Thus we ound, inour ocus groups and more widely, increasing interest in the possibility o national site licencescovering the whole HE sector, and especially in the pilot initiative to that end in Scotland (SHEDL).It is clear to us, however, that the way to achieving such deals across the sector as a whole willnot be straightorward, especially in a nancial climate which is likely to intensiy oppositionrom senior managers in universities towards top-slicing. Thus the diverse positions and nancialprospects o dierent universities may make it more dicult or the sector as a whole to worktogether towards common goals; and students and sta in smaller or less-well-resourcedinstitutions may nd that they have access to a reduced range o journals. Nevertheless, we believeit is important that libraries should work together with JISC, with unders, and with publishers to

nd ways o reducing the costs o licence deals, and the restrictions on access oten associatedwith them.

Stang

HESA and SCONUL statistics show that over the past decade, the total stang o UK academiclibraries has risen by about 15%, while overall university sta and student numbers have risen bynearly twice as much; and in 2007-08 the numbers o designated library sta actually started toall. In a context where the demands placed upon them have increased, members o our ocus

groups believe that their stang levels have already been pared down. But they also recognise thatin the current nancial climate, academics as well as senior managers see scope or urther cutsin the numbers o library sta; and evidence rom the global survey conducted by the CIBER teamshows that UK library directors are more likely than their US colleagues to contemplate cuts instang.

I what library directors tell us about seeking to do more with ewer sta is to come to pass,however, it will be critically-important to ensure that they ocus their resources relentlessly onthose areas that have the biggest impact: speedy delivery o the inormation and services thataccurately meets the needs o students and academics. Reductions in library stang levels mustthereore be based on increased understanding o the relationships between activities, costs and


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impact; and combined with more eective perormance management. Our ocus groups indicatethat many library directors are already thinking in terms o restructuring and re-engineering.

Both survey responses and our ocus groups also indicate agreement across the sector that librariesneed more detailed and eective understanding o their costs, and that cost-consciousness needs tobe embedded in library cultures to help drive process improvements, perhaps by adopting activity-based costing. There is also widespread agreement on the need or library sta to have a clearunderstanding o their roles and o what is expected o them; and a willingness to develop newskills and take on new roles.

Libraries are amiliar with the experience o restructuring, or example in merging and/or de-merging with IT services. Our ocus groups, however, spoke o tensions between the desire orully-thought-through restructuring and re-engineering to deliver more eective and ecientperormance on the one hand, and the need to reduce sta numbers rapidly in response to budgetcuts on the other. We conclude that there is an urgent need to share experience and good practicein managing restructuring processes.

Services

Librarians are o course reluctant to cut services to sta and students. But survey responses andocus group discussions show that library directors across the sector believe that budget cuts atthe levels they are being asked to consider cannot be achieved without a signicant impact onservices. Reductions in opening hours, particularly at weekends and during vacations, are optionsbeing considered by many libraries; and some directors wonder whether they can sustain the 24-hour opening that has become common, especially during the exam season. Some libraries arealready reducing opening hours, even though this is unwelcome to many students.

Other options being considered include reductions in subject support or academic sta and

students, and in inormation skills training, in addition to cuts in the purchase o books and ojournals. And budget cuts many make it dicult to sustain newer developments such as support orthe inormation gathering required or the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) and the ResearchExcellence Framework (REF).

New areas and activities

Academic libraries in all parts o the sector have developed in the past decade new kinds oactivities in supporting research, teaching and learning. And senior librarians are very much aware

o the need to sustain the momentum o innovation in developing new approaches and new


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services to support changes in institutional missions and in the workfows o both students andsta. It is clear rom survey responses and ocus group discussions, however, that there is a risk thatthe scope or doing so may become increasingly constrained by nancial cuts and loss o key sta.We conclude that sustaining momentum will depend increasingly on cooperation across the sector.Many libraries have played a leading role in promoting open access initiatives, through theestablishment o institutional repositories and o arrangements or the payment o open accesspublication ees. In the very long term, it is possible that open access may help in reducing thepressure on library budgets. But it is clear to us that or the next three to ve years at least, openaccess initiatives will continue to represent additional burdens on libraries. For the costs o runningrepositories and promoting their use, or o paying publication ees, are not being oset by anysignicant reductions in subscription costs or scholarly journals.

Libraries are increasingly being asked to play an important role in the development o moreeective arrangements or managing, curating, sharing and preserving data created or gathered byresearchers. Such a role requires libraries to develop new skills and services, and their ability to dothat is increasingly constrained in the current nancial climate.

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Libraries have also been active in addressing the increasing concerns about lack o understandingand skills among academics as well as students in handling an ever-more complex inormationenvironment. But there is a risk that urther development o the work that libraries have beendoing to support e-learning, and in ostering inormation literacy skills, will be stalled unless it isadequately supported nancially.

Income generation

Libraries generate income under a number o heads. These include, rom internal sources,photocopying ees, room hire, and nes or late returns; and rom external sources, research andproject grants, and donations. Taken together, these various sources o income account, acrossthe sector, or more than 10% o library income (the main source being the money allocated romcentral university unds each year to support the library and its services).

Our ocus groups told us that some libraries secure signicant unding in the orm o internalcharges or specic services such as inormation literacy training. Others, however, gain no benetrom the income they generate rom internal sources, which is all returned to central universityunds. And both our survey and the ocus groups indicate that librarians see relatively little scope

in the current climate or increasing their income rom either internal or external sources. Unliketheir US colleagues, UK librarians see little scope or increasing user charges, and they are awarethat nes are unpopular with students. As or external sources, project income rom sources suchas JISC is likely to be increasingly constrained; and external undraising has to be careully co-ordinated with the institution.

Nevertheless, our respondents indicated that UK librarians are interested in working with their hostuniversities on undraising initiatives, though to a lesser extent than their colleagues in the US. Andocus group members were interested in such initiatives not simply as a way o helping to balancethe books, but as a way o marketing the library and its value. I they are to be successul, however,

there is a need or more sharing o inormation on examples o successul initiatives in this area.

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Our ocus groups showed that there is a strong eeling among senior librarians that they haveailed eectively to communicate the value o their services to those who und and use them.They believe that many senior managers in universities, as well as academics and students, haveoutdated views and expectations about the services that libraries now provide. And it is true thatthere is an increasing risk that much o what libraries actually do may be invisible in a virtualenvironment. This may leave libraries especially vulnerable when institutions have to take dicultnancial decisions, with cuts targeted at specic departments or areas o activity. Moreover, whilethe student voice in support o libraries may be particularly powerul, it tends to be ocused ona rather narrow set o issues relating to ready access to course texts and the need or extendedopening hours.

In current circumstances we believe it is particularly important that libraries should be able to shownot only that they are operating eciently, but that they provide services with demonstrable linksto success in achieving institutional goals. Return on investment is thus an increasingly importantissue. Libraries thereore need to be more proactive in seeking to understand user behaviour andworkfows; and in rigorously analysing and demonstrating the value o their activities in improvingstudents experience and in supporting teaching, learning and research. The ocus o perormanceindicators up to now has tended to be on inputs and outputs that are relatively straightorward tomeasure, rather than addressing the much harder issues relating to impact and value. Nevertheless,

we believe it is essential that more is done to analyse the relationships between library activities onthe one hand, and learning and research outcomes on the other.

5. The value o libraries

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6. Conclusion

Academic libraries have demonstrated their ability to lead and to adapt their roles in responseto changing circumstances. They play a crucial role in supporting the teaching, learning andresearch missions o their universities. The quality o libraries and their services is an especially-important part o the student experience, and students are increasingly vocal about any perceivedshortcomings.

Responses to the surveys and the ocus groups show that librarians across the sector recognisethat they must respond to the pressures o a new period o nancial stringency; and that they mustdemonstrate that their services are both ecient and eective in delivering value to the sta andstudents in their universities. All our ocus group members agreed that they must nd ways o doingthings dierently; and many saw budget cuts as an opportunity to re-think what the library doesand what it means. But they have as yet ew concrete proposals that will transorm services or yieldlarge-scale eciency savings, at least within the bounds o individual universities.

In these circumstances, we conclude that it is important or libraries to share ideas andexperiences, and to test what works and what does not. There is a risk that the increasing diversityo the HE sector may inhibit working together to achieve common goals. But we believe it iscrucial or libraries to exploit the potential or co-operation in developing a range o sharedservices in order to enhance eciency, as well as the scope and quality o what they provide to

both academic sta and students.

Libraries need to do all this not least in order to sustain a momentum in the development onew services that meet the changing needs o users and the missions and strategies o their hostuniversities. Co-operation and partnership with other libraries; with other inormation serviceproviders; and with the sta, students and senior managers o their host universities will bewatchwords or libraries as they develop their strategies or the uture. Working closely togetherwith, and infuencing, partners across the university sector will be essential i libraries are to exploitthe current nancial diculties as an opportunity or change.

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Further inormation and resources

CIBER (2009). The economic downturn and libraries, survey fndingswww.ucl.ac.uk/inostudies/research/ciber/charleston-survey.pd

JISC (2009)Assessing the impact o the economic downturn on university library and IT serviceswww.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/publications/briengpaper/2009/bp-recession-v1-03-tagged.pd

RIN (2008). E-journals: their use, value and impactwww.rin.ac.uk/ejournals-use-impact

RIN (2008). Ensuring a bright uture or research librarieswww.rin.ac.uk/ensuring-bright-uture-libraries

RIN (2009). Overcoming barriers: access to research inormation contentwww.rin.ac.uk/overcoming-barriers


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About the Research Information Network

The Research Inormation Network has been established by the higher education unding councils,the research councils, and the UK national libraries. We investigate how ecient and eective the

inormation services provided or the UK research community are, how they are changing, andhow they might be improved or the uture. We help to ensure that researchers in the UK benetrom world-leading inormation services, so that they can sustain their position as among the mostsuccessul and productive researchers in the world. All our publications are available on our websiteatwww.rin.ac.uk


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Get in touch with us:

Research Inormation Network96 Euston RoadLondonNW1 2DB

T +44 (0)20 7412 7946F +44 (0)20 7412 [email protected]

www.rin.ac.uk

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Challenges for Libraries FINAL March10