![]() The library rescue plan comes as a relief to more than 100 faculty members who were the first to sign a petition in 2012 urging the campus not to close libraries but to step back and come up with something better. "This is good news for everyone on campus who walks into the Library - or visits from afar through the millions of dollars that we spend to put the latest scholarship online," Leonard said, noting that more people than ever use the Library: "kids spending long hours in the libraries and growing use by people of all ages of e-books, e-journals, anything that can be summoned up on our website." University Librarian Tom Leonard, who had originally surveyed the faculty about library cuts, said he was glad the campus had taken the time to fully discuss the issue. The plan, with a new fundraising campaign, "will assure that our Library remains the jewel that it has always been, for our students and faculty and for the broader public," Breslauer and Deakin said Monday in a statement announcing the plan. ![]() Its current budget is $60.8 million, with $43.5 million from campus funds. The Library refers to Doe, the Bancroft, Moffitt and more than 20 subject specialty libraries. While giving will not be mandatory, the Academic Senate will lead a campaign to encourage it. Up to $500,000 from faculty contributions. $1 million from deans, who have been directed to find a source of this funding by mid-February. $1.6 million from funds earmarked for the indirect costs of doing research. $3 million from the chancellor's discretionary fund. Beginning in the 2014-15 fiscal year, about $6 million a year will come from these sources: Two years later, after considering faculty proposals, outgoing Provost George Breslauer and Elizabeth Deakin, chairwoman of the Academic Senate, devised a plan. A blue-ribbon commission was convened and recommendations were made. It was a choice between terrible and horrible for the hundreds of professors, researchers and students who rely on the athenaeums - from the main Doe Library to, say, the Kresge Engineering Library - and they refused to make the choice. In 2012, UC Berkeley asked faculty members to make a decision: Did they prefer to close 16 of the libraries or just 10, with fewer librarians for those that remained? Faculty just said no The Library lost 12 percent of its budget during the recession, even as such rivals as the University of Michigan augmented their stacks and staff. "I see this as a crucial investment in support of our commitment to world-class teaching, research and public service." "Even with dramatic advances in information technology, Berkeley's magnificent library remains the heart of this university," said Chancellor Nick Dirks. With the new money, the Library expects to hire more librarians, expand collections, develop an online course on library literacy and increase hours at the undergraduate Moffitt Library.
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