PASCAL has endured significant upheaval since 2008 when state funding for programming was reduced by 90%.  While South Carolina’s academic library community lost resources and momentum, they did gain increased cohesion and clarity of purpose, and recent developments have placed our core programming on footing that is as reasonably secure as anything in this turbulent economy.

PASCAL libraries have dealt with the crisis through a series of collaborative measures which underscore the strength of the organization.  In 2008-9 we were forced to reduce our electronic resource portfolio and deliveryoperations substantially.  However in 2009-10, we developed an emergency plan in conjunction with Chief Academic Officers.  Through this plan we stabilized our core programming around 3-day/week delivery service and our basic EBSCO and GALE Literature Resource Centerelectronic resources packages.  These services are contracted through the end FY 2010-11 and it is reasonable for member libraries to plan on continuation of PASCAL services for the foreseeable future.

The activities that have made this possible include a regularization of the revenue planning process that we utilized last year (as evidenced by the approval of our budget for FY 2010-11 at the General Membership meeting held June 3), as well as the efforts made by the Commission on Higher Education, SCICU and member institutions in the legislative session that concluded in early June.  The state budget for FY 2010-11 includes up to $1.5 million in lottery funds for PASCAL.  These funds should become available in the third quarter and we would be able to carry them forward.

Members of the House of Representatives and Senate, the members of the Commission, and Chief Academic Officers and Presidents at our institutions of higher learning have all recognized that efficient collaborative ventures like PASCAL are highly effective in leveraging scarce higher educationd ollars.

However, it is important to remember that this support is largely built around one-time funds and while emergency measures have stabilized programming temporarily, long run sustainability requires stable ongoing funding. PASCAL member libraries must continue to work with their institutional partners, as well as with others such as the State Library, CHE and SCICU to maintain this stability and to recoup the significant losses in access since 2008 due to the significant decrease in state investment in knowledge.