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Dear ARLIS/NA colleagues and friends, Many of you have asked about the changes taking place at the UCSD Library, especially in regards to the future of the Arts Library. We are an ARL library, and our campus has 30,000 students, equal in size to UC Berkeley and UCLA. UCSD is an amazing place; we are only 50 years old but a top recipient of research grants, notably in the Physical, Engineering and Medical Sciences with very strong arts programs, notably Theatre and Dance, and Music. Approximately 18 months ago the Library Administration announced a reorganization of the libraries that would remove the current structure based upon subject libraries with strong centralized technical services and replace it with a single library concept with a series of "programs". We are now known as "The Library". The following libraries have already been closed: the IRPS (International Relations & Pacific Studies) Library, the Medical Center Library, the Scripps Institute of Oceanography Library (the premiere Oceanography Library in the United States), and CLICS, which was a library-managed computer lab and instructional space primarily for undergraduates. Effective July 1, 2013 the Arts Library, Science & Engineering Library, Social Sciences & Humanities Library, and the Biomedical Library will also cease to exist as separate libraries. Two library buildings will remain open to the public, the Geisel Library building which currently contains four libraries (Arts, S&E, SSH, and Mandeville Special Collections) and the Biomedical Library building, whose name we have been told will be changed in the future removing any reference to Biomedical. Speaking for myself, and after having just completed a comprehensive remodel and reorganization of the Arts Library less than 3 years ago, this complete disassembly and reassembly disregards the important, unique strengths and capacity for innovation each of the subject libraries had in supporting faculty and students in the academic disciplines and professional schools. It is difficult for me to explain why the library administration decided to go down this extreme path when other options to change but to preserve important and unique services were not considered. At the departmental level, we were not a broken organization, nor fearful of change. We heard that we needed to be a more "nimble" organization, and that our users predominately wanted digital content. This was not new news to the middle managers, department heads and heads of the libraries since many of us had worked hard and collaboratively over the years and decades to purchase or create digital content and to transform the analog collection footprint to digital where it made sense. Certainly the Arts Library was a notable example of early innovation by championing the use of new technology to deliver content digitally (audio, film, and image reserves) and overseeing the digitization of our analog slide collection that was consequently retired. Our image content has been accessible in ARTstor for over 8 years. We, along with most of the public institutions in California, face fluctuations in state financial support, and indeed, the recent economic downturn has been very hard. The Library received significant cuts to our budget, and for the past four years all library position recruitments were frozen. We were told by the administration the only way we could handle the cuts was to reduce our FTE, and their plan was to do this by attrition. I lost my Visual Arts librarian position (retirement), and a night/weekend staff position but the remaining librarians and staff in the Arts Library created ways we could cover the various duties so as not to negatively impacting our users. It was a difficult four years, but we were doing our part in good faith, that we were helping mitigate the Library's fiscal crises. My trust was altered when a few months ago we were told that in reality the Library had millions in unspent dollars in reserve, and a goodly portion of this would be used for librarian and staff recruitments, approximately 20 positions in total. I felt professionally betrayed and lost trust and confidence in the administrative leadership within the Library. The biggest problem of all is the new organizational structure. Most staff are not full time in any one program, so a complex web of supervisors and work leaders is required to oversee pieces of staff and librarians. An example of this is our Chemistry Librarian. She previously reported to a manager within the Science & Engineering Library, and had flexibility with her time to accomplish what was required being a busy and highly competent subject specialist. She was responsible for reference, instruction, collection development and liaison to several of the Physical Sciences departments. In the new organization she still has all these roles, but now she has four reporting lines, and is a part of four different programs. Staff and librarians do not understand, nor have been given concrete explanations from the administration regarding why this is a better, more efficient and more "nimble" organizational model. Finally, this is what is happening to me. After a 35 year career in art and architecture libraries, I am now the Director of the Collection Development and Management Program, which includes all subjects, all formats, preservation, and scholarly communication. The program is staffed by 12 FTE, actually pieces of 38 individuals. Thankfully I will continue to do visual arts and architecture collection development. In this position I will have some authority related to policies and decisions related to collections, and I will continue to be a strong advocate for arts materials and special formats requiring special handling, shelving and preservation. If I was 10 years younger I would consider looking for a new job since working as an art librarian/department head has been the focus of my professional career. We have already lost several of our outstanding mid-career librarians; they were to be the bright leaders of the future of the UCSD Library. ARLIS/NA will always be my professional home, and I greatly appreciate all your support and expressions of concern as I have shared this very difficult situation with many of you. Leslie Leslie Abrams Head, Arts Library (through June 2013) Director, Collection Development and Management Program (July 2013 - ) Geisel Library, 0175Q University of California, San Diego La Jolla, CA 92093-0175 [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> 858-534-3221 "I do not want art for a few, any more than I want education for a few, or freedom for a few." William Morris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org/join.html Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to [log in to unmask] ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance: http://lsv.arlisna.org Questions may be addressed to list owner (Judy Dyki) at: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~