Fifteen per cent of European research libraries responding to survey reported already experiencing cuts
Nearly half of the European research libraries that responded to a survey on the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic said they expect to experience budget cuts or are already experiencing them.
Forty-eight per cent of research libraries that responded to a question on budget cuts put to them by the Association of European Research Libraries (Liber) said that they were experiencing budget cuts already or expected to experience cuts in the next academic year, Liber reported on 11 December.
About 15 per cent said they had already experienced budget cuts, with about 10 per cent saying they expected cuts “very soon” and about 22 per cent saying they expected cuts later on.
Many institutions said they had changed their spending in response to the pandemic, with just under half reporting that they had reshuffled money toward digital services. About 37 per cent said they had partly redirected their budget to boost digital offerings, while about 9 per cent said they redirected a “large part” of their budget to doing so.
More than half of the respondents—about 52 per cent—said they had received no government support in response to the pandemic, while about 22 per cent said they had and about 17 per cent said they did not know.
Liber said it received 298 responses from research libraries in 31 countries across Europe, albeit with about 23 per cent of responses coming from Switzerland. It said it was further exploring libraries’ needs.