Next year, serial prices will inflate by 10 percent and book prices will inflate by 8 or 9 percent. Another thing leading to the cuts in materials is the addition of electronic databases, Titus said. No new money was ever incorporated into the budget to pay for the databases, which cost a little over half a million dollars to maintain. It's not just the state, it's the whole country. Titus said that in the past there has been soft money sources or other areas within the library budget to transfer money from, to avoid making cuts in materials.
Soft money is only good for one year, journals are every year.
Tim McKimmie, an associate professor with Branson Library, said there was a bond issue three or four years ago that gave the library a million dollars and the university has given the library money from time to time. Titus said library fund managers are working with each department's library liaisons on the serial cancellations. The liaisons make the cut recommendations from their departments to the fund managers who make the final decision, Titus said. Titus said the deadline for library fund managers' cancellation recommendations is May 1, because they must send their cancellation requests to companies by May 15. Titus said if they cancel something, it does not mean that they can not obtain in through inter-library loan, or that they can not obtain something that was hard copy, electronically.