By William D. Braxdale
Daily Bruin Contributor
The UCLA Library, which was ranked 2nd in 1997 and 3rd in 1998,
has dropped to 6th place in the latest Association of Research
Libraries’ Library Membership Index.
“I don’t care so much about being 6th,” Werner
said. “I just feel badly that the trend has been
down.”
The index is a statistical analysis of five measures that
include volumes held, volumes added, current serials, total library
expenditures and staff size, according to Julia Blixrud, director
of information services at ARL.
ARL is an organization with more than 120 members. UCLA has been
as high as second and has never been below fifth, going back to
1986.
“It’s been something we take a great deal of pride
in,” Werner said.
In response to the drop, Werner has brought this to the
attention of the chancellor in hopes that the trend can be
reversed.
The numbers for 1999 indicate a significant drop in the number
of volumes added. In 1999 UCLA had a total of 7.4 million volumes
in circulation and in the course of the year added more than
157,000 new volumes to the collection. But the number of new
volumes added has dropped 25 percent from 1998 and 38 percent from
1997.
According to Werner part of the decrease can be attributed to
the fact that the number of volumes added does not get counted
until they are catalogued by the staff.
From 1996 the staff has dropped from 438 to 414.
She attributed the loss of staff to tough economic times that
began in 1989-90 and continued for five years.
“We have not been able to rebuild our staffing to go back
to those earlier levels,” Werner said.
In more recent years, however, she said that things have gotten
a little better.
“The UC Office of the President has been successful in the
last year or two in getting more money from the legislature,”
Werner said.
Up until recently the amount of money allocated for the library
was driven by a formula. Werner, however, said they have moved away
from that and the library has gotten more money for collections
from the president.
“I’ve had some discussions with the chancellor about
this and he is not pleased about the trend,” Werner said.
“He said that he will try to turn this around.”
Despite coming in No. 6 this year, UCLA has come in as high as
second despite some key disadvantages, being a relatively new,
public university.
Harvard, the top-ranked library since the rankings began in
1986, is successful because they have been building their
collection for the last 300 years, while UCLA has been around for
less than a third of that time, Werner said.
She added that Harvard’s library is supported by large
endowments left by families of alumni.
“Their collection is humongous,” Werner said.
“Their staffing is probably two or three times
ours.”
The drop in the rankings could affect future ability to recruit
new donors for UCLA’s library as well, which in turn affects
the ability to maintain a high rank on the list.
This means that consistently being ranked No. 1 may have its
advantages. Beth Brainard, communications officer for the Harvard
University Library, said that they did not pay much attention to
what number they are in the rankings.
“We’re really interested in growing our collection
and developing the collection to best serve our users,”
Brainard said.