A seismic retrofitting project required the UCSB Library (University of California, Santa Barbara) to permanently reduce its on-site collections by 120,000 volumes. To accomplish this successfully, a strong collaboration with the faculty was essential. This article describes a planning process in which the library worked with a faculty committee to implement a campus-wide survey of faculty and graduate students regarding their behaviors and preferences in accessing and using the collections. The survey outcomes informed a common understanding of which physical materials should remain on-site and which could be moved to storage with the least impact on research and teaching.
The many ways to engage with affordability: academic libraries and the costs of higher education Students today face increasing financial burdens that affect their success. The cost of higher education is rising much faster than the rate of inflation. The average expected undergraduate tuition and fees increased over a range of 12 % to 17 % between the 2010/2011 and 2018/2019 academic years, based on the type of institution (National Center for Education Statistics, 2020). Aside from the long term impacts of cost of the tuition, the costs that make up these "associated fees" can have an immediate effect; in 2014, US PRIG reported that 65 per cent of students said that they decided to not purchase a textbook due to its cost, and 94 per cent of those students were concerned that decision would hurt their grade (Senack, 2014). These concerns have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 Pandemic. Many students are experiencing higher rates of financial instability and calls for a reduction in tuition and fees if education moves online are growing (Hesel, 2020).These issues are urgent, and the solutions are complex and need to be addressed in different ways by many different parts of higher education. We are presented with an opportunity for academic libraries to step to the forefront: to embrace pioneering roles in working with students, faculty, and other campus stakeholders to advocate for solutions to benefit all. Libraries can find solutions not only within our tried and true practices, relying on consortia and collective purchasing power, but in new forays into Open Education Resources (OER) and institutional repositories. Libraries innovate, iterate, and assess and find new solutions by leveraging our unique role on campus to unite siloed partners. It is the aim of this issue to pull together a variety of viewpoints, case studies, and examples of how libraries are responding to this rapidly evolving environment. Resources are at times scarce, as is expertise, and so we rely on our own instincts and the examples of our peers to forge a path forward.The articles in this issue address the wide variety of ways in which libraries engage with and address affordability issues on their campuses. As we read through submissions for this special issue, we noticed a number of common themes. The first addresses infrastructure, including working within preexisting structures and building new ones. Another cluster focuses on collaboration, consortia, and care, as authors work with other stakeholders and ground their projects in the needs of their users rather than being prescriptive. And finally, authors explore the sustainability of affordability projects and investigate the impact of these initiatives on student success.
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