Interlibrary Loan, Research Databases Facing Extinction With Proposed State Budget Cuts

An ominous red banner currently hangs over the top of the JerseyClicks.com Web site, counting down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until the state funding for library databases is cut off.

New Jersey residents likely have until July 1, the deadline for the New Jersey state legislature to pass the annual budget, before the harsh realities of a deeply indebted state hit home at local libraries.

Governor Chris Christie's budget proposal includes a 74 percent cut in state funding for New Jersey libraries, including the end of the New Jersey Knowledge Initiative, which currently provides access to a variety of database resources to all New Jersey residents. Also on the chopping block will be state funded interlibrary loan programs as the regional structure of New Jersey libraries is curtailed.

The End of Interlibrary Loan

"Starting July 1, you cannot go to a computer in the library and say I want this book and then have it come," Library Board of Trustees Treasurer Lois Bloom said. "You can reserve it, but you will have to go get it."

Bernards residents received over 2,000 books from other libraries in May alone this year, according to Bloom, loaning out even more. "We may be able to get together with six or seven other libraries and get a courier, but it's going to cost us," she said.

The loss of interlibrary loan is just one of the many funding challenges facing Bernards Library, which must debate putting off long-planned maintenance and repair projects to deal with the loss in state aid. To replace the loss of the database resources the state currently provides could cost the library over $100,000 annually, according to Library Director Anne Meany.

"We all understand that there are going to be cuts, and there have to be cuts, but the argument is let's try to make it a little more proportional," Bloom said. "Something has to give."

Limited Job Search Capabilities

Database usage in Bernards has been on the rise, potentially due to the poor economy and an increase in job seekers, according to Reference Librarian Ruth Lufkin. The number of searches on all state-funded databases increased 21.9 percent from 9,544 in 2008 to 11,635 in 2009. The amount of page views using the databases jumped 31.5 percent in the same time.

"The primary things we are talking about that are being paid for by the state are ReferenceUSA, EBSCOhost and Informe!, the Spanish language database," Lufkin said.

"ReferenceUSA is of most interest to our job seekers. It includes information about businesses in the US and Canada, everything from the smallest mom and pop operations to the Fortune 500 companies," Lufkin said. "At the very least it will have a name, address and phone number. Almost all of them will have one person associated with them."

Users can create personalized contact or client lists with the database at the library or at home on JerseyClicks.com. ReferenceUSA also has business profiles, and would cost an estimated $70,000 a year for the libraries currently in the Morris Automated Information Network (MAIN), a regional library group of which Bernards is a part, according to Lufkin.

"That's an enormous amount of money that we hadn't planned on. It will take some juggling," she said.

Lost Research Options

Other databases including the many provided by EBSCOhost provide text information from hundreds of newspapers, magazines and trade journals, helpful in doing a variety of research projects.

Usage of EBSCO databases in Bernards has risen every year since 2006, up 78 percent from that time (5,165 searches in 2006 to 9,214 in 2009). The yearly increased exceeded 19 percent in each of those years.

Because of the loss of the regional library structure, the databases that are not provided by the state may also cost more money because the libraries had previously negotiated savings by pooling together, according to the library's Board of Trustees.

"There were four regional cooperatives. One of the regional cooperative directors took the job with negotiating with the database vendors to get really good pricing, and whatever pricing she got was honored by any other library in the state that belonged to the regions," Board member Mary Jane McNally explained.

McNally also works as the school board liaison to the library, and said that she has calculated that replacing the state-funded databases in Bernards schools will cost the district $36,910 per year.

Concerned library users have implored the state to reconsider the funding cuts, and Board members urged local residents to write letters, the old-fashioned pen and paper type letters, to the Governor and their State Senator and Assembly representatives. Because of the effort required, state officials count letters as the equivalent of around 15 emails, according to Bloom, making it the preferred method of protest.