About Us | PASCAL’S Statewide Electronic Library for Higher Education |
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PASCAL is creating a 21st Century information resource for South Carolina
Higher Education! Core Programs:
The Statewide Electronic Library for Higher Education has been funded through a combination of state funds, member library dues, and federal grants. Although PASCAL member dues and fees currently account for about 16% of the total operating budget, the General Assembly has appropriated $2 million annually since 2004. In FY 2007-8, we seek to add materials and capabilities to support economic excellence and increased integration of libraries with research, teaching and learning. Thus $2.5 million is needed to fund core operations. This funding is in the SC Commission on Higher Education budget. State monies are used for database and electronic journal licensing fees, and ongoing costs such as delivery, hardware and software maintenance and support. These are recurring annual expenses on which students have come to rely heavily, and libraries would be hard-pressed to match on an individual basis. PASCAL libraries work to extend the effectiveness of this core funding, cooperatively leveraging their institutional resources in many ways. We pool funds to gain licensing discounts; existing staff at member libraries handle daily operations of the borrowing program. We coordinate our licensing and delivery programs with the State Library’s DISCUS program to further leverage the effectiveness of the funding available for all South Carolina libraries, including K-12 and public libraries.
In the Southeast, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, North
Carolina and Virginia support comparable programs. What is PASCAL?
The Partnership Among South Carolina Academic Libraries (PASCAL) is a
strategic initiative to improve information access for South Carolinians. It was
launched by South Carolina's public and private academic libraries in
conjunction with their parent institutions, the Commission on Higher Education
(CHE), the State Library, the SC Independent Colleges & Universities
(SCICU), the Office of State Chief Information Officer, and the Department of
Archives and History. Visit us on the web at: http://pascalsc.org Last Revised February 11, 2008 |


