[592] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
hi-tech in hard times
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Lee Jaffe, McHenry Library, UC San)
Thu Jun 25 10:49:34 1992
Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1992 09:43:39 CDT
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
From: "Lee Jaffe, McHenry Library, UC Santa Cruz, 408/459-3297" <jaffe@ucscm.UCSC.EDU>
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
I want to respond, belately and indirectly, to the discussion about diminishing
resources and funding for new technologies. Two recent projects in our library
highlight what I think is an ironic but very realistic response to technological
opportunities and needs in bad times.
We have just found seed money for a project to move our 200,000-item slides
catalog from an IBM CMS system to a Macintosh-based 4th Dimension database. The
original proposal, estimated at $26K, would have provided for programming time,
software, data conversion and hardware for a server and two workstations in a
networked environment. When the library could not cover that cost, we pared the
proposal down to a stand-alone server/station configuration, at about $10K, with
the fuller configuration to be funded later through grants, etc.. Even then, it
was a little strange to think that we were spending money for a new product when
state budget projections tell us that a 10% cut to the University will be good
news.
In a way, I don't have a solid answer to this dilemma. I can only say that we
can't stop growing and developing even in hard times. Hard times only mean that
the choices we make will be harder, not that we don't have choices. On the
other hand I can point out that our CMS bill for disk storage, CPU time and I/O
runs ~$3000/year, that converting the system next year will cost many times more
than it would this year and that there is wide acceptance among people that this
is a project long overdue.
On a different scale, we are about to rewire our main library. All told, the
budget for the project is around $100,000. Again, we just had a meeting Monday
where administration talked about the state budget projections, the possibility
of vouchers, pay cuts, voluntary reductions in time, early retirement programs
and bringing in our own office supplies. On Friday we will meet with the same
staff to describe the massive rewiring of the building. We will be installing
wire that we will not be able to light up because the library budget will not
support the related continuing fees. We can't even tell them that they will be
able to use the new wire.
Again, there is a sort of uneasy embarrassment in spending this kind of money,
for an apparently new capability, when we will be struggling to maintain
on-going services. There are a number of rationalizations for this move. This
is a long-awaited project, the library being one of the last buildings on campus
to be brought up to spec. We have not been able to install any updated hardware
because of our current wiring plant and this has been a problem for other units
working with us. However, the bottom line is that this is opportunity money
provided by the campus specifically to rewire the library. We can't channel it
to other services or projects. What we don't spend goes back from whence it
came. And we can be sure they won't be making us the same offer next year.
While it seems crazy to plead poverty and cut journal subscriptions while
shelling out big bucks for new wire, it would be manifestly insane not to wire
the building when we can.
I know there have been quite a few messages saying that budget problems mean the
end of new and innovative projects. On the face of it, that could seem logical.
However, on a case-by-case basis, I think you are going to find that there is
going to be a lot more weight behind the new projects than you might have
guessed.
-- Lee Jaffe, UC Santa Cruz
