In the face of a global pandemic and budget cuts, the New Mexico State University library system will be getting a much needed breath of fresh air, thanks in part to the student government.
According to the official press release, $80,000 will be appropriated to the library system from the Associated Students of New Mexico State University, whose funding comes from student fees.
“I’m a firm believer in still making sure that the student fees get back to students some way or another,” ASNMSU President Mathew Madrid said. “I don’t know if you want to call it fate, but the day after the story broke, there was a meeting for the Library Student Academic Advisory Council, or LSAAC for short, and quite frankly in that meeting, we just asked very candidly, like, ‘what can ASNMSU do to help?'”
“I was just so surprised and in awe that Mathew Madrid and the ASNMSU senators voted to support this one-time appropriation. We’re extremely touched, and we are just amazed that they wanted to do this. We didn’t ask; they wanted to do this on their own.”
The story in question broke in February when it was announced that the library system would not renew subscriptions to 433 scholarly journals, according to the ASNMSU press release. A wide range of subscriptions were included in the cut, ranging from the “Annals of the Entomological Society of America” to “Trends in Biochemical Sciences.”
With the loss of scholarly content, the interim dean of library administration, Katherine Terpis, feels that this boost of funding will help in the long run. “I think that the benefit is offering access to content, and that is a huge, huge ability to be able to do in times where the funding is not as sustainable,” she said.
The allocation will be used to pay for new content, which includes the Alexander Street Press subscription, Interlibrary Loans, Patron Driven Acquisitions and the Suggest a Purchase program.
“I was just so surprised and in awe that Mathew Madrid and the ASNMSU senators voted to support this one-time appropriation,” Terpis said. “We’re extremely touched, and we are just amazed that they wanted to do this. We didn’t ask; they wanted to do this on their own. That’s huge. I’m just in awe of that. I just am.”