(SCOTT ALLISON | The Miami Student)
Due to the budget cutbacks that have plagued Miami University, the school's library system will reduce available services and hours of operation fall 2010.
Lisa Santucci, information services librarian, said the libraries will no longer offer e-reserves, poster printing or 24/7 access to the King Library facility as of the fall 2010 semester.
According to Santucci, these steps are necessary for maintaining the libraries' essential functions.
"In these times, we have to examine what is really core to our mission," Santucci said. "The library is here to support the curriculum."
In regard to eliminating e-reserves, Belinda Barr, assistant dean for information service, said most professors now use their Blackboard sites to post readings electronically. The library will explain the basic process of uploading readings to Blackboard for faculty and administrators with no prior experience, but from that point the responsibility will be in the instructors' hands.
Along with the removal of e-reserves, the plotter machine used to print high-quality posters in King's multimedia center will also be eliminated.
"What has happened is our multimedia facility is about multimedia and we offered the plotter as an extra, but the price of maintaining it is getting exorbitant," Santucci said.
Barr said the loss of King's plotter would be a minor inconvenience to the students.
"The service is still going to be available on campus," Barr said, "IT services will still have their plotter for use."
The final cutback affecting the library system this upcoming fall is the reduction of hours at King Library. According to Santucci, King Library will be closed from 10 p.m. Friday until 9 a.m. Saturday. It will also be closed from 10 p.m. Saturday until 11 a.m. Sunday. King's weekday times will remain unchanged from the current 24-hour policy.
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Barr said the hours had to be cut due to a reduction in staff.
"We had to eliminate hours," Barr said. "So we looked at the numbers and those hours we chose were when we didn't have a lot of people."
After hearing the situation, one frequent library-visitor appeared sympathetic.
"It's always nice to have the library option open on the weekend," sophomore Rose Kaplin, a dietetics major, said. "I understand why they have to change though, and at least they still have 24-hour weekdays."
Several students seemed willing to adapt to the necessary changes.
"I use the library a lot, but if they really have to make a change I don't think it will be the end of the world," said sophomore Geoff Blackwell, an international studies major.
In 1954, The Miami Student reported on the attempt to form a Senior Week. Five hundred votes were needed to pass program but only 244 students approved of the plan. One respondent said, "Since when does Miami U. have the spirit to do things together?"
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