Dear colleagues and students,

Due to a 16.4% decrease in the FY24 budget allocation for library books and databases, SWOSU's librarians have made the difficult decision to downgrade three core full-text databases, cancel selected discipline-specific databases, reduce book purchases, and cancel periodical subscriptions. In total, the budget allocation for library resources in FY24 is $509,000, compared to $609,000 in FY23.

Please see the Resource Cuts & Downgrades tab above for details on the impact of this cut, as well as cuts made in previous years. Instructors, please see the Action Items for Instructors tab for steps we recommend you take to ensure that links to library databases continue to function in your course materials.

We deeply regret the necessity of eliminating and downgrading resources upon which instructors and students rely. We are sincerely grateful to the departments that are assisting the library by sharing database costs. Without their support, the cuts to databases and journals would be even more severe.

In response to this drastic budget reduction, SWOSU's librarians have initiated new discussions with the university's leadership about implementing a small student fee to support library resources. Eighty-two percent of Oklahoma's public higher education students pay a per-credit-hour library fee, including 46% of students attending RUSO institutions. The fee we have asked leaders to consider would raise students’ per-credit-hour costs by less than one percent. If you support stemming the loss of library resources by implementing this recommendation, we would appreciate you letting SWOSU's leadership know.

Be assured that in spite of repeated funding cuts, the library’s faculty and staff remain dedicated to supporting SWOSU’s instructors and students.

Sincerely,
The Faculty of the SWOSU Library