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FAQ

New Question as of May 16, 2003

New Question as of May 6, 2003

New Questions as of April 21, 2003

1. Why did the library receive a budget cut?
2. What is the budget of the Cornell University Library?
3. What is the budget reduction for 2003/2004?
4. How will the Library handle the budget reduction?
5. Are all areas of the budget equally affected? Personnel? Library Materials? Operating expenses?
6. What values will drive the budget reduction process?
7.What is the timeframe for planning and implementation?
8. How can I get involved in the process?
9. Will there be layoffs?
10. Won’t the vacancies occur unevenly in the organization and won’t some critical positions need to be filled?
11. If layoffs occur, what procedures will you follow?
12. Is the Library offering retirement incentives?
13. Will library employees receive pay raises in 2003/2004?
14. What is workforce planning?
15. Why did the Library offer to participate in workforce planning?
16. How do the budget reduction, the Goals and Objectives 2002-2007, Workforce Planning, and Models of Academic Support 2010 relate to one another?
17. Can the Library save money through energy reduction?
18. Can the Library reduce travel?
19. Can we use money provided by the university for the pay improvement program (PIP) toward meeting our budget reduction goal?
20. What were the results of the recent 'Convenient Business Hours' study? Will CUL reduce its hours of operations due to budget cuts? Or, will we be expanding our hours of operations in response to patrons' needs/wants?
21. Is digitization part of our core mission? Should we be digitizing materials that exist in our collection in another format? When we digitize materials from our collection, don’t they benefit primarily users outside Cornell, rather than our core community of Cornell faculty and students? Shouldn’t we rely primarily on grant funding for digitization?
22. Could we put a donation box near the exits of major library buildings, like the one near the door of the Johnson Art Museum? The revenue generated would be small, but might help with the supplies budget or cover other small expenses.
23. I attended the Academic Assembly on April 30. Shortly before you finished your portion of the presentation, it sounded to me like you said that Lee Cartmill had handed you a piece of paper that accounted for the $650,000 budget shortfall through attrition. Did I hear correctly? Does that mean we don't have to worry about layoffs this year?

1. Why did the library receive a budget cut?

Cornell University, like other institutions of higher learning, is experiencing unparalleled financial uncertainties in both endowed and contract college sectors. The economic environment is contracting, with state contributions declining. At the same time, the University will protect its key priorites and is committed to strengthening academic initiatives, ensuring competitive faculty and staff salaries, and creating a strong undergraduate program. To close the gap between projected resources and planned program expenditures, the University has reduced endowed unit base budgets by approximately 2 percent, after allocating funds for pay improvement and inflation, for 2003/04. This budget reduction has been distributed differentially among endowed colleges and units, informed by the first phase of workforce planning, estimated savings of the network port changes, and institutional priorities. Additional reductions will likely occur in future years. At the same time, the contract colleges are facing significant cuts in programs and resources. Reductions in state funding for 2003/04 could be 15 percent or higher.

2. What is the budget of the Cornell University Library?

The total 2002/03 budget for the Cornell University Libraries (excluding the Medical College) is $43,980,000. This includes all funding sources (university and state appropriations, deans funds, gifts, grants and other revenues, and endowment income) and is broken down as follows:

3. What is the budget reduction for 2003/2004?

The total extent of the budget reduction is not yet known. The University has notified the Library that the reduction for the endowed general purpose budget is approximately $865,000 (after allocation for pay improvement and inflation). This target is reduced by savings resulting from the new telecommunications rate structure (including all public port costs being covered from central university funds), of $215,000, resulting in a net reduction of $650,000. This is a permanent reduction in the base budget of the Endowed general purpose budget.

In addition, since the University’s endowments (like investments in general) have not performed well, the payout from endowments in both the endowed and contract colleges will drop by 10%. For the endowed libraries this represents an additional reduction of about $217,000 in the library materials budget and about $165,000 in income to support other library operations. Endowment payouts are calculated on a three-year rolling average, so if market performance increases, the payout will increase. If the market continues to decline, the payout will also continue to decline.

Libraries not included under the Endowed general purpose budget (Entomology, Geneva, Hotel, ILR, Mann, and Vet) have not received their budgets as of 3/27/03, but state funding could decrease by 15% or more.

4. How will the Library handle the budget reduction?

The Library will solicit ideas and suggestions from all quarters, including library staff, users, and colleagues at other institutions who are experiencing similar cuts. The Library Management Team will review them from the system-wide perspective and make recommendations to the University Librarian, who will make the final decision about reallocation and reductions. This effort will address the more immediate need to reduce spending.

In parallel with this effort, the University Librarian will chair a Library and Related Information Services Workforce Planning Steering Committee formed to make recommendations about how the Library could achieve 10% and 20% reduction and reallocation scenarios. Charged by the Workforce Planning Team, the Steering Committee’s recommendations will ultimately be approved by the President, Provost, and Vice President for Administration and Chief Financial Officer. The Workforce Planning review takes a strategic look at resources.

These two initiatives combined will identify and evaluate areas for savings. The Workforce Planning effort is designed to help us manage our budget cuts; savings we identify through Workforce Planning initiatives can be applied to our budget reduction targets. We anticipate further reductions in 2004/2005, and at the same time we know that libraries have expanding responsibilities in many areas. We must reduce or curtail our spending in some areas in order to add emphasis in others.

5. Are all areas of the budget equally affected? Personnel? Library Materials? Operating expenses?

The budget reduction is targeted primarily at the non-materials portion of the endowed general purpose budget, of which nearly 90% is personnel related. The endowed materials budget received a small increase, although with the negative impact of the endowment payout decrease and inflation in publications, it will be insufficient to maintain the status quo in purchases. In addition, some contract college libraries have received decreases in the materials budget. For example, Mann Library received a 1% reduction in the base materials budget in 2002/2003 and there is little confidence that the materials budget will increase in 2003/2004.

6. What values will drive the budget reduction process?

The Library’s mission statement outlines the library’s values and these principles will inform our budget reduction process. They are repeated below:

Values (Goals and Objectives 2002-2007)

Our primary focus is on users.
We are committed to excellence.
We respect and treat users and each other with helpfulness and courtesy.
We embrace diversity in all its forms.
We are a trusted source of information, printed and digital.
We support self-education, learning, research, and scholarship.
We are full participants in the educational process.
We are flexible, proactive, and cooperative.

In addition, LMT and the Council of Librarians have identified the following assumptions as approaches to budget review:

1. Minimizing layoffs is a priority, although it is possible that some will occur.
2. We should protect specialized research that is distinctive.
3. We should protect key user priorities.
4. We will normalize services if they result in savings or improved user efficiency
5. The whole budget, including materials, will be reviewed in considering the impact of systemic changes.
6. We should eliminate duplication of content in multiple formats where possible.
7. We will protect the Library’s future through the support of important goals.

7. What is the timeframe for planning and implementation?

We have already begun planning. It is important to identify some savings immediately because our reduced budget will take effect in July 2003. However, we need to assess the impact of recommendations and communicate them to others, so our implementation dates are not fixed. We should implement most recommendations by January 2004.

8. How can I get involved in the process?

You can contribute recommendations and solutions by sharing them with your supervisor, by discussing them in unit or functional group meetings, or by sending them to the suggestion box. In some cases the Library will be establishing small teams to evaluate ideas, and you may be asked to share your expertise with these teams.

9. Will there be layoffs?

We don’t know yet, but if layoffs are necessary we will use attrition to minimize the number required. In addition, we may need to reassign and retrain people to perform in the areas where the needs are greatest. We are calculating the number of vacancies that occur during a year and estimating the savings they would yield if we were able to freeze them.

10. Won’t the vacancies occur unevenly in the organization and won’t some critical positions need to be filled?

Yes, some positions will need to be filled from outside. These may require special subject, language, or technical expertise that we do not have in the library, so we will continue to recruit for some openings.

11. If layoffs occur, what procedures will you follow?

If layoffs among non-academic staff occur, the Library will follow Cornell University Policy 6.12: Separations, Voluntary and Involuntary, Including Layoff (Excluding Academic and Bargaining Unit Staff). The appointments of academic staff are governed by CUL Procedure #13: Appointment and Promotion of Librarians.

12. Is the Library offering retirement incentives?

If retirement incentives are offered on the endowed side, they will be part of a university plan. Should New York State offer a retirement program for 2003/2004, some employees in the contract colleges may be eligible for state programs. No programs have been announced at this time. The University may consider other incentives to reduce personnel costs. For example, the Library may offer full-time employees the possibility of converting to half-time or three-quarters time status.

13. Will library employees receive pay raises in 2003/2004?

The University has provided the Library with funding for the endowed pay improvement program. Information on contract colleges will be forthcoming, but we expect that there will be a pay improvement program throughout the Cornell University Library in 2003/2004.

14. What is workforce planning?

The University has adopted workforce planning to review several administrative functions: alumni affairs and development, facilities, finance, human resources, information technology, and student services. Information about workforce planning is available online. Each workforce planning effort is slightly different, but the goal is to review processes to ensure university-wide effectiveness. On February 28, 2003, Carolyn Ainslie, Vice President for Planning and Budget, and chair of the Workforce Planning Team, charged the University Librarian with establishing a Steering Committee to

• Document the resources devoted to campus information services that support academic research, teaching, and outreach and describe the manner in which these services are funded, organized, and staffed.
• Review functions that fall into the general categories of technical services, public services, collection development, and information systems. The review should examine the purpose and extent of replication of effort and resources associated with these functions and consider if another structure would result in a more cost-effective delivery of service without compromising quality. Develop planning scenarios to achieve 10% and 20% savings in costs, excluding funds committed to acquisitions of library materials.
• Consider the extent and manner to which each library unit is used and the cost and space required to effectively operate each library unit, develop different scenarios that could reduce the overall cost of providing service without reducing essential service quality. This review should include, but not be limited to, examining possible unit consolidation.

15. Why did the Library offer to participate in workforce planning?

During the process of establishing its Goals and Objectives for 2002-2007, the Library Management Team recognized that additional resources would be necessary to accomplish its goals. These funds would come from fundraising, the university, or internal reallocation. Since the economic downturn, it seemed that reallocation was the alternative that was the most within the Library’s control. Workforce planning is a tool for reengineering that can potentially be of great use to the Library. Having the benefit of access and attention from senior administrators of the university is also an attraction as it offers the opportunity to affirm the library’s critical role in the teaching and research mission of the University. The scope of the workforce planning effort encompasses the endowed, contract college, and hotel libraries.

16. How do the budget reduction, the Goals and Objectives 2002-2007, Workforce Planning, and Models of Academic Support 2010 relate to one another?

The Library’s Goals and Objectives 2002-2007 establish priorities and directions for the library over the next five years. These Goals and Objectives remain as a blueprint for the Library’s activities, even in the face of a budget reduction, although progress on them may be slowed with fewer resources at hand to accomplish them. Models of Academic Support 2010 is a planning grant to examine where the library and information services to support academic programs should be in 2010. Workforce Planning is a tool to identify potential new structures and modes of delivering information that would lead to savings. These savings will enable us to absorb the budget reduction and still meet priority service requirements. Savings beyond the budget reduction will provide the resources to accomplish our goals and objectives.

17. Can the Library save money through energy reduction?

Energy conservation is an excellent approach for Cornell to reduce spending. Turning off lights when they are not needed and shutting down your computer when you leave for the day are two ways in which the university can achieve savings. The Library is not charged for its energy consumption, however, so the savings will not show up in our budget. Nonetheless, if we are careful consumers of energy, the university will benefit, and that helps all units.

18. Can the Library reduce travel?

The Library has reduced its expenses for administrative travel by 40% in the last year, saving several thousand dollars by driving and sharing rides, taking the bus, and requesting reimbursement from organizations when invited to be a speaker or consultant. The Library Management Team feels that professional development is an important component of the work of the Library staff and that travel to conferences can result in importing ideas that can improve our services and effectiveness. Thus we continue to support attendance at meetings and conferences. However, we are planning on coordinating attendance more carefully to reduce multiple attendees at some events, and we are encouraging everyone to choose transportation options and hotels carefully.

19. Can we use money provided by the university for the pay improvement program (PIP) toward meeting our budget reduction goal?

Several staff have offered to give up their PIP in order to save positions. This is a very generous offer, but it is not one that University Human Resources supports. Over the past several years the University has made a concerted effort to bring staff pay up to market levels, and the Library has supplemented University funds in order to increase salaries. To provide little or no increase in pay this year would erode the advances we have made. The University is striving to have a more efficient operation, with employees who are fairly rewarded for their contributions. We are pleased that the University, even in a tight budget year, has remained committed to improving faculty and staff salaries.

20. What were the results of the recent 'Convenient Business Hours' study? Will CUL reduce its hours of operations due to budget cuts? Or, will we be expanding our hours of operations in response to patrons' needs/wants?

Last year’s LibQual survey revealed a concern among our users about “convenient business hours” in the libraries. Those surveyed indicated that we were not meeting their desired hours. To learn more about the needs of our students and faculty, the Library conducted a survey on the meaning of “convenient business hours,” the services we should provide, and where additional hours might be the most beneficial. We are still analyzing the results; they have not yet been presented to LMT. However, it seems unlikely that we will adopt a “one size fits all” approach since there is considerable variation in the use of our libraries. Having the data will be very useful as we make decisions about where and when we should offer services.

21. Is digitization part of our core mission? Should we be digitizing materials that exist in our collection in another format? When we digitize materials from our collection, don’t they benefit primarily users outside Cornell, rather than our core community of Cornell faculty and students? Shouldn’t we rely primarily on grant funding for digitization?

Cornell’s successful digitization program has been almost exclusively grant-funded. Some users and staff have expressed concern about spending any university funds on in-house digitization, believing that we should not invest in reformatting items we own in paper. However, some of the most heavily used resources we have are JSTOR journals, which have been reformatted by a third-party and which are then sold by subscription to libraries. Increasingly scholars find that the access to digital materials allows them to mine texts more productively and creatively than they can with traditional materials. Commercial vendors are investing heavily in digitization, and we are purchasing access to their products. The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) has written to university presidents, calling on them to consider a mass digitization project that would keep the rights for digitized information within the academy and that would create a critical mass of documents and materials to serve a variety of scholarly needs.

In the Library’s Goals and Objectives, Goal I calls on the Library to allocate a portion of the Library budget for digital conversion of analog holdings. This goal is consistent with the best practices of other leading institutions, including the members of the Digital Library Federation and members of the Association of Research Libraries. Cornell faculty and students benefit from materials we convert here, but also from a growing global “library” of digitized materials. Thus, although one might argue that the cost per Cornell user of digitized materials is high, one must also take into account the benefits our users derive from resources other libraries have contributed. A reasonable parallel might be the support of special collections in libraries, where we invest millions of dollars for the common good, rather than because there is consistent, high local demand.

We have protected the collections budget for the acquisition of materials new to the collection or for licensed access to commercially produced publications. To date, no acquisitions funds have been spent on in-house digitization, and our plan is to continue to use gift funds and grant funds for that purpose. However, with the rising demand by faculty in all disciplines for access to digitized text and images, and our experience with heavy use by students of online materials, we do not plan to reduce expenditures for digitization.

22. Could we put a donation box near the exits of major library buildings, like the one near the door of the Johnson Art Museum? The revenue generated would be small, but might help with the supplies budget or cover other small expenses.

Since students are our primary users (along with faculty) and pay tuition that goes partially to support the libraries, it is likely that donation boxes would not be well received nor used. I would guess that a majority of the Museum's visitors are not affiliated with the University and might therefore be more willing to donate to help cover the costs of operation. The library does provide other means for the public to donate such as the honor with books program (brochures are available in many libraries) and with giving links on the Alumni and Friends Access web site.

23. I attended the Academic Assembly on April 30. Shortly before you finished your portion of the presentation, it sounded to me like you said that Lee Cartmill had handed you a piece of paper that accounted for the $650,000 budget shortfall through attrition. Did I hear correctly? Does that mean we don't have to worry about layoffs this year?

We have identified positions that are currently vacant or that we expect will become vacant in the near future (for instance, through retirements). The salaries and benefits for these positions amount to approximately $650,000. Some of these positions can remain vacant but others will need to be filled. The Library Management Team is evaluating the options presented by these vacancies and is also reviewing other possible savings unrelated to current staffing vacancies. It is reasonable to expect that a significant proportion of the budget reduction, but not all, can come from these vacant positions. We need to continue to look at ways to save not only for 2003/04, but also for anticipated reductions in subsequent years. As we have said, we will do our best to minimize layoffs, but as of this moment cannot say for sure that there will be none for this year.