Correction appended.

A university's character and prestige is often measured by its numbers: the class sizes, the student-faculty ratio, the percentage of international students and the size of the endowment, among other figures.

The quality of higher education is dictated not only by these stringent measurements, but also by the extent of the university's academic resources. While Brandeis' electronic resources and library collection may have grown along with the changes in research and technology, the budget for attaining these resources has actually declined since 1989.

In the future, with a boost in funding, we hope the University will ensure its electronic resources and physical library are able to continue supporting and promoting research.  

In an interview with the Justice, John Unsworth, the provost for Library and Technology Services, indicated that the collection budget for books hasn't changed significantly over time. While in 1989 the budget was around $3.25 million, more than 20 years has actually decreased. The LTS budget last year was $3.14 million.

According to the associate director of resource management and budget at LTS, Sherry Keen, this budget is then further allocated-20 percent for print media and 80 percent for electronic resources.

After two decades this budget surely can't continue to accommodate the library's media needs.
With 80 percent of the budget going toward sustaining electronic media, the University has been able to accumulate a number of useful and expensive online research databases like LexisNexis, EBSCOhost and JSTOR. Enabling students to have unlimited access to search for articles across multiple databases allows for an easy and productive search process.

On the other hand, our limited book selection only hinders the process. Waiting the maximum 14-day period for an interlibrary loan from another university or library is obstructive to any student engaging in extensive research with deadlines and a restricted amount of time. Even with an established digital media library, the unavailability of these print resources is detrimental to the University's reputation and it's capacity to support research.

Although our digital library has matched the continually advancing image of the University's research programs and initiatives, the physical library has fallen behind. While the process of online researching is easy and instantaneous, oftentimes older books that have information about specific issues are not extensively covered in digital media. In order for the University to promote and sustain student learning and faculty research, it must invest the funding to increase the selection of print resources.

Only 20 percent of the library's collection budget currently goes toward print media, not 80 percent, as the Justice was initially informed and consequently reported. In fact, 80 percent of the same budget is used for electronic and digital resources, while the other 20 percent is used for print.