PASCAL is creating a 21st Century information resource for South Carolina Higher Education!

Core Programs:

• Electronic Resources – Tens of thousands of core academic journals in electronic form.
• PASCAL Delivers (Statewide Universal Borrowing) – Millions of books available within 3 days.
• Digital Libraries & Scholarship – Coordinated access to electronic resources of all types.

Benefits:

• PASCAL’s Statewide Electronic Library for Higher Education vastly increases the knowledge available to South Carolina's 300,000 students and faculty. We provide access to millions of articles from electronic journals and research publications in core academic disciplines, health sciences, and business. These resources are essential for teaching, learning and research in today’s higher education arena. Using our union catalog of 9 million items, students can order books from any academic library in the state with one or two clicks of a mouse, and they’ll be delivered in a couple of days!


• The Statewide Electronic Library for Higher Education levels the educational and economic playing field in the global information economy. Collections at smaller colleges increase by well over 2000%, while research libraries see their effective collections double, or triple. Thus for many students and faculty, we provide a gateway to core scholarly materials that would not otherwise be available. By providing access to core research publications in the sciences, business, humanities and social sciences, we free funds at the research institutions allowing them to increase their competitive edge in specialized disciplines. Working together we are consolidating statewide access to books, journals, and digital archives for SC campus-produced intellectual content and materials of national significance.


• This vast expansion in resources is extremely cost-effective. Since its launch in 2004, PASCAL’s statewide electronic resource licensing program has brought in $7 of value for every $1 spent. This adds up! Over the past four fiscal years, $4.6 million invested has licensed 33 databases with FULL TEXT access to millions of articles in more than 12,000 journals and newspapers, as well as thousands of other research publications. This would have cost $33 million had all academic institutions licensed these materials independently. Similarly, by making it easier and cheaper to borrow books, the statewide catalog and delivery system generates a dramatic increase in use at a fraction of current transaction costs.

Funding:

The Statewide Electronic Library for Higher Education has been funded through a combination of state funds, member library dues, and federal grants.  In FY 2007-8 member dues and fees accounted for about 16% of the total operating budget.  Between 2004 and 2007, the General Assembly appropriated $2 million annually for programs. . 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 replace. 

The SC Legislature reduced funding for PASCAL's programs by 90% for Fiscal Year 2008-9.  As a consequence many of the high value information resources that we have been able to provide universally to all students and faculty in South Carolina are being lost. Learn more!

 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.

Many states support similar programs. In the Southeast, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida,  Kentucky, and Louisiana, are particularly noteworthy.

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