Marshall University libraries are suffering at the hand of depleted funds. The base budget has not been increased for five years and the purchasing power for books and journals is at or below one-third of peer university averages, said Barbara Winters, dean of libraries at Marshall. "One of the major issues facing Marshall is funding and the libraries are a part of that whole issue," Winters said. Although some consider the library to be just one of many budget problems, Faculty Senate liaison David Winter said he believes it affects the entire campus, especially students. "It seriously undermines our students' ability to do the research and assignments professors are asking them to do," Winter said. Winter said it hits very close to home for him personally. "There are assignments I simply can't give my students here," Winter said. "They're the sorts of assignments I think are indispensable to creating a well-rounded educated person." Winters said the library program's role as a universitywide resource warrants its need as a priority. "We support all the academic programs in the university and that makes our need more widespread," Winters said. "It's not just a case of one college or department. When we don't have what we need all of the departments suffer." Winters said the library administration has been creative in coming up with temporary solutions by participating in special one-time augmentations for the last five years; joining groups like the Pennsylvania Academic Library Consortium and EZ-Borrow, allowing the library to borrow books from other sources; buying fewer books and using the saved money to purchase much-needed magazines and periodicals; participating in "cooperative purchasing" through EPSCoR libraries' purchasing cartel and fundraising, which has resulted in at least $300,000 for book purchases. "They have beaten bushes, they've looked under every rock, they've done whatever is humanly possible to try and maintain services and improve the collection," Winter said. In January the return of a 10 percent budget holdback by university administration allowed the library to keep from canceling all serials. Winters said she realized this is a statewide problem even for much better funded institutions such as West Virginia University, and made an effort to thank the faculty and university administration for their support. "The president and the administration have been doing everything they can to help us," Winters said. Winters remains optimistic in spite of the dismal reports. "I think we're going to be on an upward swing as a university," Winters said. "I think the next two years might continue to be difficult. When you've gone through a period of losing students, it takes a little while to get back to where you were." Winter was quick to praise the library staff for its effort. "I am, and I think we should all be, just absolutely impressed with what Barbara Winters and her crew do with the budget they've got," Winter said.
Morgan Unger can be contacted at unger6@marshall.edu.
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