MATT GENTRY The Roanoke Times

Paul Metz, Virginia Tech's director of collection and management, shown in the current periodicals section of Newman Library, says the pleas to help the library are louder than ever this year and they're falling on friendly ears. "Everything that I'm reading and hearing gives me the sense that our message has gotten across to the university," he says. "I know they're concerned I really believe they will give us what they can."

BLACKSBURG -- With nearly $30 million in reductions to state funding, Virginia Tech's upcoming budget is expected to include cuts in colleges across the university.

But proposed cuts to one sector of the university that belongs to no college -- and every college -- have caused a stir among faculty this week.

The university library system, which has operated for years on a smaller budget than libraries at other universities similar to Tech, could cut nearly $900,000 in subscriptions because of budget cuts and inflation.

That figure represents some 700 journals that are on the chopping block. If they are all cut, it would be the biggest blow the library's serial collection has ever suffered, said Paul Metz, director of collection and management. The prospect of real budget cuts on top of serial cancellations the past two years because of inflation is "terrifying," he said.

But Metz doesn't think that's going to happen.

He said the pleas to help the library are louder than ever this year and they're falling on friendly ears. The administration understands the problem and cares, he said.

"Everything that I'm reading and hearing gives me the sense that our message has gotten across to the university," he said. "I know they're concerned ... I really believe they will give us what they can."

The library posted announcements March 13 and Monday asking for feedback about subscriptions and explaining the impact budget cuts and inflation would have on subscriptions.

As of Thursday afternoon, Metz had received about 800 e-mails about the issue, and three subscriptions -- Web of Science, EndNote and Springer and Wiley -- received the most requests for the library to keep.

The faculty senate passed a resolution Tuesday asking that some of the $17 million in federal stimulus money the university is expected to receive next year go toward the library.

Provost Mark McNamee said the university will probably use some of the stimulus money to mitigate the effects on the library, but he is more interested in long-term solutions to the library's funding shortcomings.

The most recent comparable data from the Association of Research Libraries ranks Tech's library system 104th out of 113 in expenditures. The only Atlantic Coast Conference school ranked below it is Georgia Tech. The University of Virginia's library budget -- which includes its law and medical schools -- is more than twice the size of Tech's.

"It's difficult to support a top-50 research program with a top-100 library," Metz said.

Metz has been at Tech for 30 years and first cut serials in 1993. He's done it several times since, as budget increases have not kept pace with the rise in periodical costs. Some fields have seen annual increases as high as 15 percent.

"Unless we have real money to cover that inflation we are going backwards," said Lesley Moyo, director for library research and instruction. "In order to grow in terms of our collection ... it requires us to actually get a budget increase beyond 7 [percent] to 10 percent."

With colleges and departments submitting plans for 5 percent budget reductions next year, a 10 percent increase isn't realistic, but Moyo said she was pleased to hear several faculty speak up about the library's importance at the faculty senate meeting Tuesday.

McNamee said he thinks the faculty and administration are in agreement about the importance of the library.

The university had been trying to develop an effort to make progress in the face of inflation before the recent budget setbacks and funding for the library is part of each college's efforts in the university's current $1 billion capital campaign.

While the budget cuts will force the university to make tough decisions, McNamee sees some positive coming out of it.

"I think it has really brought it to the forefront of many people's minds," he said.