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Friday
September 12, 1997
Rising costs putting libraries in a bind
By Gwen Olson
By Gwen Olson
golson@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
A dramatic, nationwide increase in the amount of research published and the cost of scholarly journals is threatening the University of Kansas' status as a research institution, administrators say.
Provost David Shulenburger spoke to 450 faculty and staff members Tuesday about the problems KU libraries—and university libraries across the country—are having with keeping collections of scholarly journals up to date.
The amount of research generated is growing every year, he said. For example, the number of scholarly monographs printed by the American Association of University Presses increased 67 percent between 1985 and 1995, he said.
"With increases of this magnitude in an era of relatively stable budgets, our chance of obtaining a constant portion of the scholarship in print is nil." Shulenburger said.
He said that in order to keep up, the University's library acquisitions budget would have needed to
The problem is that the price of these serials has increased at a rate Shulenburger described as "astounding."
increase by about 5.5 percent each year during the past ten years, excluding inflation of the prices of periodicals.
"The cost for serials has gone up by 148 percent over the last decade, a compound annual rate of 9.5 percent," he said. "The cost for monographs has gone up 62 percent, a 4.9 percent annually compounded rate."
Library costs climb
Bill Crowe, Vice Chancellor for information services and dean of libraries, said that the increase in prices could eventually affect the quality of education at the University.
One reason for the increases is that publication of scholarly journals is now taking place in the private sector, Shulenburger said. In the past, the journals were published by university-based scholarly organizations.
"Years ago most of the information scholars and students used was kept in the loop of the scholarly community," he said. "Over the last two generations that flow has been commercialized and commercial publishers have made
The price of library materials has risen dramatically in recent years. Costs of those materials, in hundreds of thousands of dollars:
attractive offers to professors to publish."
Crowe said that although the University's budget for acquisitions had increased, it had not increased enough to keep up with the number and cost of the journals. Because of this, the University has been forced to cut subscriptions to some journals.
"It goes against everything we stand for in the university system, he said. "Information is not free, but we need to not have such massive barriers for getting it. Public libraries exist so people have a place to get information."
Tony Walton, chairman of the department of geology, said that his department had taken steps to
prevent problems with access to scholarly journals.
"We are most concerned about graduate student access," he said. "Many of us get subscriptions at a lower cost for personal purposes, but then the only copies are in the hands of faculty and are not available on nights and weekends when students need them."
Walton said that some journals had two subscription prices, one for universities and a lower price for private subscriptions within the universities.
"The problem is that if the higher price isn't paid, you can't get the journal at the lower price," he said.
Walton said graduate students would be most affected if the journals were not available because their classes explore advanced topics that require more in-depth information.
Ray Ammar, chairman of the department of physics and astronomy, said that the problems had stemmed from the libraries' budget remaining relatively constant.
"The problems may not show up for many years, but when they do, any and all departments will feel the pinch." he said.
At the convocation, Shulenburger encouraged faculty to help reduce the problems with the prices of journals by reversing the trend and not publishing their work in the private sector.
"Scholarly associations which have not sold their rights to journal publication must not do so," he said. "Those that have must let their agreements expire and recapture their scholarly journals as soon as possible."
Shulenburger also suggested that scholarly societies should start a parallel journal for each journal that could not be recaptured from the private sector.
To help offset the problems this year, Shulenburger said he and Chancellor Robert Hemenway had allocated an additional $100,000 in
one-time funds to the library for acquisitions this school year.
"KU faculty can be leaders in a national movement to end extraordinary inflation of library materials and to end the annual round of cancellation of journals and reduction of monograph purchases," he said.
Shulenburger also discussed changes in Lexis-Nexis, an electronic source of information, since it was acquired by the private publisher Reed-Elsevier in 1995.
"We have been paying $1,800 per year per port to access the key educational parts of Lexis-Nexis," he said. "Reed-Elsevier informed us last fall that to acquire the same access in 1999 would cost $45,240 per port-year. An increase of 25 times in price."
The University had decided to hold cost down by reducing access, but Reed-Elsevier announced a new subscription service.
With the new plan the cost of access will go up only 350 percent instead of the 1,000 percent of the original proposal.
"Instead of paying about $25,200 per year we will now pay about $87,000 per year," Shulenburger said. "An occasion for great rejoicing."
Weekend pep rally fires up crowd, team
Downtown event to give fans the blues
By Ann Premer apremer@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
In an attempt to create KU team spirit and to stir up economic activity in Lawrence, the Lawrence Convention and Visitors Bureau, along with Downtown Lawrence, Inc., is hosting the second annual Big Blue Weekend.
The event, which highlights the Jayhawk football team, starts this evening with a pep rally to boost spirits before tomorrow's game against the Missouri Tigers. It will take place on 8th Street between Massachusetts and New Hampshire streets.
year to get more spirit for football," said Jennifer Carter, travel sales and marketing manager for the bureau.
"It's something we started last
The street will be closed at 3 p.m. today and the festivities will begin at 5:30 p.m. The pep rally is scheduled for 6 p.m. Terry Allen, KU head football coach, his staff and KU football players will make an appearance at the event. Last year the team under Glen Mason did not attend the pep rally.
Members of the KU band, Spirit Squad and Baby Jay will perform at the event.
"They have been nothing but excited to come," said Rita "Peach" Madl, coordinator of the event.
Jim Phillips, KSNT-TV meteorologist, will be the master of ceremonies. His Topeka station
See BLUE ON page 3A
Service and scholarships — but not for men
By Ryan Koerner
rkoerner@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
It's a social group. It's a service group. And it's only for women.
The University Women's Club serves as a social-service and scholarship organization, and has done so since May of 1900.
"We used to perform a lot of the functions the orientation offices now does," said Mary Elizabeth Debicki, University Women's Club president. "As the University changed, so did the purpose of our group. Now there are offices that take care of what we used to do."
In the past, the club took care of such things as hosting teas for the Chancellor, his guests and host graduate students.
Yacher, a lecturer in the English department, also said that if there were enough interest, the newcomers committee would form a newcomers social group.
"We will visit points of interest around the city and help newcomers get acquainted with other interest groups on campus," Yacher said.
"We have luncheons or teas, or any activities that would interest the members," said Nancy Yacher, newcomers committee chair.
University Women's Club members met yesterday morning in the Union to induct new members and meet with old members. From left to right: Carolyn Everett, Nancey Yacher, Kay Henry, Mary-Elizabeth Debicki, and Teri Herberger. Photo by Geoff Kearney/KANSAN
Membership in the club is open to women in University of Kansas administration or educational staff positions, but new members don't have to be newcomers to the University.
"I don't know how long I had been here before someone invited me to join." said Debicki, who retired as director of Study Abroad last year. "The club has always made an effort to reach out to new faculty, but never administrators or women who have a long history with the University."
Debicki said the club recently realized that there were potential members who had been affiliated with the University for several years and who would have liked the opportunity to meet with other women.
"These women work long and hard days before they get to go home where they may have to play the role of mother or family organizer," she said. "They almost feel as if they haven't got the time open for what seems to them self-indul
gence."
In addition to the social aspect of the club, many members want to be of service to the University and the club's scholarship fund, Debicki said.
The club's scholarship is awarded annually, usually in February, and is based on merit. The
scholarship is funded by members' donations and is only offered to women.
"We want to support those women who may not exactly qualify for financial aid, but are still excellent students," Debicki said.
The club meets the first Thursday of every month.
ET CETERA
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