Founders Memorial Library has received a $214,000 budget cut, which is about $26,000 less than the reduction originally expected for the fiscal year 1989 budget.

Library Director Theodore Welch said the amount of the cut was reduced from $240,000 because NIU Provost Kendall Baker proposed that $100,000 from the spring 1989 tuition surcharge be added to the budget. Welch said the Illinois General Assembly has to approve the surcharge, and then NIU President John LaTourette has to decide if the $100,000 will go to the library.

Welch said the $100,000 was counted on to ease the burden of the cuts. He also was enthusiastic that the cuts at $214,000 were not as severe as first expected.

The option chosen reduces the library’s journals budget by 75 percent and the books budget by 25 percent, Welch said.

“The 75-25 split brings us back to a healthy balance, 60 to 70 percent (of the budget) for journals and 30 to 40 percent (of the budget) for books,” Welch said. Many libraries have that balance, he said.

“The option provides excellent flexibility,” Welch said. One of the other options, which called for a zero reduction in books, had no flexibility, while yet another option would have made the cuts equally between books and journals, he said.

Gordon Rowley, associate director of the library’s resource services, said the 75-25 split concerns the overall library budget and not individual departments. He said individual departments and colleges have a journals-books split according to each department’s needs. For instance, he said about 90 percent of the library materials used by the chemistry department are journals. However, the art department uses more books, Welch said.

The library received $125,000 in reallocated funds from other colleges, which was added to the FY89 base budget.

A memo from Welch to NIU deans, department chairmen and library faculty stated $50,000 of the $125,000 amount went to purchase computer terminals and printers for an online catalog. In FY89, part of the remainder of the amount will be used to pay more than $40,000 in deferred book bills, and $35,000 will be used to offset the inflation costs of books.

Welch said a positive aspect of the budget reduction process was departments were able to communicate.