By Bilal Qazi and Jonah Segree
After cutting 15% of the library’s budget this fiscal year, the Bellarmine University administration plans to cut another 15% of the budget in the coming fiscal year, according to Director of Library Services John Stemer.
“The cuts are very significant,” Stemer said. “It covers a wide range of resources covering all of the schools and all of the disciplines.”
Many databases have been or will be either cut or downsized to adhere to the budget. One such database is Kanopy, which many students and professors use to find educational films such as documentaries.
“It used to be that faculty would request a video and we would rely on demand-driven access. Basically, they could just go in and assign it and students could watch it,” Stemer said.
“In the course of that, students might find something else they were interested in, and they could look at those other videos as well. But as a cost-saving measure, we had to say basically a faculty has to ask for a video then we’ll turn it on. So, that extra educational content isn’t there readily available anymore.”
Although every department is predicted to feel the effects of the cuts, Stemer said the chemistry department is likely to be the most affected. For the last several years, the library has had full access to the American Chemical Society’s extensive catalogue of journals, but the library and the chemistry department have agreed that the cost is too high and have decided to cut it.
For students, this means many articles that could be accessed in one click may now require them to submit an interlibrary loan form and wait several days for access.
Dr. Patrick Holt, chairman of the chemistry department said, “At this point, there really has not been a hardship for students yet.”
But some students said they are feeling the impact of the cuts already.
Maria Lennon, a senior chemistry major, said she is in a class that unexpectedly lost access to an article required to complete an assignment.
“To write our lab reports,” Lennon said, “we have to reference the articles and [the professor] had listed which ones she needed us to look at. And so, I went and tried to find the articles and they weren't there.”
Lennon said when she emailed the professor about the issue, she was told the article must have been cut recently, as students had no problem accessing it the previous semester. She received a copy of the article from the professor, but Lennon said this defeated the purpose of the assignment.
“The point is that she wants us to be able to search for things and find the articles on our own,” Lennon said. "It's a skill that we're learning to use in the field someday."
This was an isolated incident, but Lennon said she anticipates further cuts will increase occurrences like this one and students and professors should be aware of these changes.
“It will definitely take more planning on the students’ part, but also the professors' part as well, just to let students know that there will be a wait to access some journals, because a lot of times I won't start writing the lab report until, like, a week before it's due, right?” she said.
“That’s normally plenty of time, but waiting for that article would definitely slow things down.”
Any questions or concerns about cuts to the library databases can be sent to Stemer at jstemer@bellarmine.edu. A video tutorial on how to request a book or article through interlibrary loan can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch v=NkfomdjreoE&ab_channel=BellarmineUniversityLyonsBrownLibrary
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