To help fight the rising cost of academic journals, the Academic Senate Library Committee is requesting more funding from the university.

In a letter obtained by Central Michigan Life sent to University President Michael Rao and Provost Julia Wallace, the Academic Senate Library Committee chairwoman and English, Language and Literature professor Anne Alton requested the university increase the budget for the library to keep up with the rising cost of inflation for academic journals.

“The library could use a commitment from CMU to keep up with the rising cost of serials and journals,” she said. “Our perception is there is a lack of support for the library from the university.”

Alton said the inflation for journals has raised prices between 7 and 10 percent, while the increases to the library acquisitions budget have only averaged 2.2 percent since 2001-02.

Alton thinks the library does not receive enough support from the university.

“Students need the library and teachers need the library to do he research that CMU wants,” she said.

Alton said the English department has been asked to identify the serials the department uses most and the ones they do not use as much because the library cannot afford to keep them all.

Dean of Libraries Thomas Moore said funding is not the sole issue.

“The issue is that the purchasing dollar is not worth what it was,” he said.

Both Alton and Moore hope to work closely with Wallace so the issue does not fall through the cracks during the transition from when Rao leaves the university on July 1 to when a new university president is named.

“Provost Wallace has been very attentive to the concerns of our library,” Moore said.

Moore said the library is looking for other ways to acquire funding for their budget, including private fundraising.

“We fundraise every day of the year,” he said. “Fundraising is what we do.”

Alton is asking the A-Senate to support the resolution, which she expects to get at the next A-Senate meeting on April 28.

university@cm-life.com

E-mail the author: Joe Martinez