As you know, the Dalhousie Libraries made reductions to acquisitions this year due to a number of factors, namely, a cut to the acquisitions budget, inflationary costs of the resources, and an unfavourable exchange rate on the US dollar. On November 1, special funds were provided to the Libraries to complete the purchases needed for this academic year, but many students and faculty were left wondering what would happen next year and in the years to come.

A review of the acquisitions budget was recently conducted by the VP Academic, the VP Finance, the University Librarian, and an Associate University Librarian. Our goal was to propose an acquisitions budget model that will provide more consistent purchasing capacity over time.

The review recommended the following to ensure sustainability of the acquisitions budget:

a.      A three-year moratorium of any further cuts on the acquisitions budget.

b.      The annual shortfall of purchasing power from exchange rate fluctuations will be covered by central funds (from Dalhousie).

c.      An annual adjustment for increases due to inflation will be built into the acquisitions budget based on an external metric, like CPI (Consumer Price Index).

d.      Funds in the acquisitions budget will remain restricted to the purchase of library material and select related expenses (such as interlibrary loans).

e.      The cost of Novanet will be funded annually from the acquisitions budget with special additional funding.

The Dal Libraries will be well positioned to meet the research needs of students, faculty and staff as a result of these changes to the acquisitions budget and we are pleased that a solution has been found.

Thank you for your continued support of the Dalhousie Libraries. In the future, there will be more time to work with faculty and students to determine priorities together, and to make transparent, collaborative decisions about the collections.

Sincerely,

Donna Bourne-Tyson
University Librarian