Dear Editor:

An article about printing appeared in The Bulletin which needs to be corrected. It is not the responsibility of the University Libraries to provide printing for the campus. The University Libraries subsidizes printing for students out of its materials budget. This is the budget which buys books and electronic databases for university use. There is no budget for printing nor do students pay any fee which covers printing in the University Libraries. As a result, we instituted charges last year for multiple copies and for more than 25 pages.

Because the University Libraries believes that research material needs to be made available to students as widely as possible, we have subsidized printing costs for many years. However, if there continue to be severe budget cuts, it will be impossible for this policy to continue. Paper and toner are very expensive. At this point, we intend to continue to subsidize printing. There are a couple of ways that students can help. One is to be careful to print only what they need and therefore not waste paper and toner. Another is to download relevant articles onto thumb drives or email the material to their email addresses.

With the help of the students, the University Libraries will be able to maintain free printing.

Thank you,

Joyce N. Davis, Dean

University Libraries & Archives