MIT Libraries Budget Information

Colleagues,

Recent communications from MIT's senior administration have set forth the reasons why MIT is obliged to reduce its overall budget for general Institute expenses. As the economy has contracted, and traditional sources of revenue have declined, the Institute must bring its annual expenses into alignment with available funds. Systematic, long-term defunding of the endowment is not an option. Consequently, both near term and long term budget changes will be required.

The MIT Libraries have received a target budget from the Provost for FY2010, and we will work with the Provost's Office and Library Council to develop a financial plan for the Libraries that achieves the required budget reductions. To the extent possible, I am committed to effecting these reductions on a carefully selected programmatic basis, rather than through across the board reductions. A significant portion of the Libraries budget resides in collections, and the reductions we take here will be deliberate and guided by Institute priorities, sound principles, and appropriate metrics.

The anticipated length of the economic downturn clearly indicates that short-term belt-tightening will be insufficient to achieve the reductions in expenditures made necessary by the current financial situation. In other words, although conservation - on a variety of levels - will play an essential role in our overall strategy, conservation alone will not achieve budget reductions of the scale required.

As the Provost noted in his memo of today, future years will also require additional budget reductions at MIT to align MIT's future budgets with anticipated revenues. An Institute-wide Planning Task Force will be charged with exploring opportunities and identifying options that could result in economies of scale and other structural changes that may reduce costs across the Institute. Although it provides slim comfort, neither MIT nor the MIT Libraries is alone in the need to confront the realities of the current financial situation.

For our part, the MIT Libraries will be guided in their long-term planning by experience, mission, data, the insights of the Committee on the Library System, the Visioning Process we began earlier this year, and the feedback we receive from surveys of faculty, staff, and students. Library Council members will have an important role both in considering the options available and in carrying communication to and from staff. There will be other, ample opportunities for staff to contribute ideas and input into the process. For example, we are in the process of creating a Libraries web site to keep ourselves informed and engaged in the months ahead. I urge you also to monitor and submit comments to the Institute's central financial planning website at http://web.mit.edu/institute/budget-planning/ .

As always, your intelligence, commitment, and creativity will be essential to our success in the months and years ahead. Thank you for your contributions.

Ann J. Wolpert
Director of Libraries

Last updated: 13-Feb-2009

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This page was last updated on Tuesday, 25-Jan-2011 16:04:53 EST