NASIG 26th Annual Conference 2011

The Razor's Edge: Louisiana's State Budget and the Serials Crisis of 2010-2012

Presenters:

Michael Matthews, Northwestern State University
Sara Zimmerman, LOUIS: the Louisiana Library Network
Karen Niemla, University of Louisiana at Monroe

Files:

.ZIP with PPTX and WMV video clips
video of presentation; 1 hr 27 min

Time & Location:

St. Louis, MO, Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark
Sunday, June 5, 9:00am-10:30am
Strategy Session, Group C

Abstract:

Offered as a piquant contrast to strategy sessions that presume a surfeit of resources, this presentation focuses on coping with massive budget cuts to higher education and libraries in one of the poorest states in the union. The challenge of providing comparative services with diminished funding on a state-wide scale is the ultimate test of doing "more with less." Sara Zimmerman will focus on the response to the funding emergency, and the long-range strategies involved in gaining financial and political support to weather the coming storm of 2011. The LOUIS Consortium is advised by the Louisiana Academic Library Information Network Consortium (LALINC). Karen Niemla played a critical role in publicizing the LOUIS emergency. She created a popular animated cartoon that defends LOUIS and explains consortial buying power and relationships in 90 seconds (please see http://www.acrlla.org/savelouis). Karen will discuss how Web 2.0 tools are an economical and effective means of communicating the value of libraries. Michael Matthews will focus on the long term effects of shrinking academic journal collections. He will discuss how academic libraries are adjusting their collection development policies to cope with the prospect of vanishing resources.

NASIG 2011 Conference Program