Necessity as the Mother of Invention: Library Technology in the New Economy

摘要

Those of us working in academic libraries can testify that the impact of the worldwide Great Recession is still being felt more than six years after the United States was first declared to be in an economic slump in December 2007. The financial downturn has affected almost every aspect of the economy and society in general, including higher education. In 2008 and 2009 colleges and universities around theworld, regardless of size, enrollment, public or private status, or prowess of football or hockey team, sustained huge losses in their endowment funds, which supported everything from salaries to facilities to library collections. Businessweek's Lavelle (2013) reported that on average college endowments lost over 18% of their value in 2009 with some institutions like Yale and Harvard taking hits of over 29% and 30% respectively. Public colleges and universities have fared just as badly and many are dealing with massive cuts to their state- or province-funded operating budgets. Roller (2012) reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education that public research universities have seen levels of state funding reduced by 20% between 2002 and 2010.