Moore Library faculty responds to recent library budget cuts

By Moore Library Faculty

This fiscal year (FY22), the university administration guillotined Moore Library’s materials budget by cutting 30%, or $300,000. This cut severely compromises its ability to support Rider University’s pedagogy and growing curriculum. Last year (FY21), Moore Library’s budget was slashed 20%. Instead of a culture of collection development, we have long suffered a culture of fiscal cuts to the detriment of teaching and learning at Rider University.

Any additional cuts will cripple teaching and student learning. We can no longer afford this route–the cost of no access is too high.

Literature shows student success and retention correlate with higher library spending and the use of library resources (citations available, but full text access to the majority of them will disappear with the cuts). Instead of an arbitrary budget cut, Moore Library requires a considered and considerable budget increase to meet the expanding needs of both current and proposed/planned programs.

When the Moore Library’s budget faces such draconian cuts, it will affect all university departments and programs. Without adequate funding of our basic academic resources, the university fails to meet the educational goals of its vision statement, to adequately support the Information Literacy (c.) portion of the Undergraduate Student Learning Competencies and Objectives (Outcomes) (section 89, Academic Policy Manual) and to meet Middle States Standard III Criterion 5b., where accredited institutions offer “a curriculum designed so that students acquire and demonstrate essential skills including … information literacy.” With an abominably starved materials budget, we become a university library in name only. Even the most accomplished educators cannot overcome a lack of resources. In an age of widespread and deliberate disinformation, we need more readily available authoritative sources, not fewer. A robust library at Rider is essential!