The long and short of it is that we need to be more lenient with the acquisitions budget of the library. I refuse to believe that with its billion-dollar endowment, Oberlin has no room for any sort of discretionary expenses. Hotchkiss mentioned in passing that “the lion’s share of these reductions has taken place over two years instead of five,” which suggested to me that the parties responsible for balancing the budget are being even more uncompromising than they need to be, forcing Oberlin’s libraries to make quick decisions about trimming resources or staff. Thus far, our libraries have tried only to throw the nonessential cargo overboard, but with the way things are going, more drastic measures may have to be taken that limit every student and teacher’s access to important information. Oberlin can’t let it come to that.
