Visit http://pascalsc.org/content/view/173/1/ for more information.
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What is Going On?
The SC Legislature reduced funding for PASCAL’s programs by 90% for Fiscal Year 2008-9. As a consequence many of the high value information resources that we have been able to provide universally to all students and faculty in South Carolina are being lost. Already, PASCAL has eliminated several science and law databases, and in January we will be forced to cancel subscriptions to Science Online, Nature and most of our recently acquired nursing resources. We have also been forced to reduce PASCAL Delivers by 40%. Book deliveries will now only be made three days each week. In July 2009, we will need to make even deeper cuts if funding is not restored.
Loss of universal access to the knowledge we provide South Carolina’s students will have a devastating impact on the state in many ways, but it also adversely affects individual students and teachers in the classrooms of our colleges and universities.
We are working with many of your libraries to salvage some of the resources formerly funded by the legislature, but many will be lost. At many of our smaller rural schools, knowledge will simply vanish. At larger institutions, cuts may be masked somewhat, but even there our state’s information base will still decline as libraries make hard trade-offs and their direct costs rise.
Things you can do to help
Librarians
- Continue to promote our services – for now, they’re still extremely valuable!
- Let your users in on the facts — both what we’ve accomplished and what we are losing…
- show them how it affects them directly on your website, and through your promotional and training programs.
- Help us make connections with key student and faculty groups (e.g. student government, important programs, etc.)
- Encourage them to provide feedback via our web form
- Identify those who might be willing to write letters, particpate in events, when called upon…
- Be prepared to help us inform others, especially after November 2008.
Students and Faculty
- Tell us your stories via our web form
- Let others in your academic community know about this crisis.
- Tell folks who can help that this is an important part of your education.
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