NIU’s budget for the university libraries has received a boost to help counter rising inflation.

The additional $200,000 in the libraries’ funds stems from reallocations within the budget of the university.

“If it wasn’t for (NIU) President (John) La Tourette’s interest in the library, I don’t think we would have received any money at all,” said Ronald Provencher, NIU acting director of university libraries.

However, La Tourette said more funds are needed to help fight the rapidly rising inflation in the cost of library materials which has lowered NIU’s purchasing power.

“Despite the addition of $200,000 to the university libraries’ budget, it is not enough to totally eliminate the effects of rising inflation,” La Tourette said.

He said $100,000 of the additional funds is permanent, and the other $100,000 has been released temporarily this year.

Provencher said the money must be used to restore the libraries’ approval plan, which was cut in September.

“The approval plan deals with the purchasing of books and monographs,” he said.

Last year, budget problems led to the deletion of more than 700 serial publications from the library’s inventory of academic equipment.

“The $200,000 addition will not allow us to restore those serial publications,” Provencher said. “We have to use it to restore the approval plan.”

He said the addition only will allow the library to pay its bills in regards to the approval plan.

“When trying to adjust a budget to comply with less purchasing power, you can do one of two things. You can pick out things to cut from the budget, or you can cut your purchasing,” he said.

“We are trying to order the important materials.”

He said there is a possibility that an additional $200,000 will be added to the budget in the future. These funds must be approved by the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE), he said.

“If the IBHE ends up approving the additional $200,000 it could mean a total of $400,000 added to the budget for fiscal year ‘94,” Provencher said.