Effects of the Economic Downturn on Academic Libraries in the UK: Positions and Projections in Mid-2009

The global economy has experienced a steep downturn that is affecting all sectors of society. The United Kingdom officially entered a recession in January 2009 that made public spending cuts inevitable. Academic libraries are particularly vulnerable to changes in the world economy because of their reliance on highly-priced globally-sourced information products and dependence on expenditure allocations from parent institutions that are heavily dependent on public funding. An investigation of initial and anticipated effects of the downturn on libraries in UK higher education was conducted in summer 2009 to assess its impact on human resources and working practices, information resources and collection management, service portfolios, projects, and developments. A pragmatic mixed methodology was employed combining a mainly quantitative sector-wide questionnaire survey (n = 36) with in-depth semi-structured interviews of 12 senior managers at five universities. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Interview data were coded and analyzed thematically using cross-sectional indexing to facilitate inter-institutional comparisons. Results showed staffing and journal subscriptions were most affected, with services and projects largely protected. Findings confirm prior assumptions about human and information resources as targets for cuts, demonstrate strong commitment to service provision, reveal complex effects on development projects and highlight critical dimensions of managerial behavior.