Investigating the optimisation of South African university library budgets in an austerity environment.

Abstract

South African Research University Libraries (SARULs) strive to provide essential information resources to support their universities' learning, teaching, research, and community engagement functions. However, the ever-tightening library budgets reduce library resources in South Africa (SA) and worldwide. The existing optimisation strategies appear to be short-term, spontaneous, and unsustainable. There is, therefore, a need to develop long-term sustainable optimisation strategies. The purpose of this study was to investigate the optimisation of South African university library budgets in an austerity environment. In so doing, the following research objectives were pursued: firstly, to determine if austerity budgets were the only problem causing the shrinking of library resources. Secondly, this study sought to establish what optimisation strategies were in place and their sustainability. Thirdly, to investigate if the Theory of Constraints (TOC) could be used successfully to optimise SARULs’ budgets in an austerity environment. This study adopted the qualitative research approach and employed in-depth interviews to collect primary data from purposively sampled respondents through WhatsApp, Skype, and Microsoft Teams. The study’s target population consisted of 42 respondents selected from six research universities in SA according to the Carnegie Cooperation of New York (CCNY) classification. The universities were Rhodes University (RU), Stellenbosch University (SU), University of Cape Town (UCT), University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), University of Pretoria (UP), and the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). Data on the reasons for shrinking library resources and optimisation strategies were collected. Thematic content analysis was used to clarify the meaning of the qualitative data. Qualitative data collected were analysed using ATLAS ti.22. The findings of this study revealed that only paid-for resources were shrinking, while there was an information explosion on alternative Open Access (OA) resources for libraries to access. Several reasons for the shrinking of library resources and optimisation strategies were brought to the fore by the librarian and Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research (DVC:R) respondents. It was of concern that some optimisation strategies were not long-term but aimed at short-term solutions. The study concluded that there was a need to develop long-term, sustainable optimisation strategies that would help strengthen SARULs role as a learning resource centre. The study would contribute to the body of knowledge by recommending policies and practices that would help optimise budgets. This would help decision-makers make informed decisions when supporting libraries with financial and technical assistance. Extending this study to other SA universities with different resources and experiences could be a valuable avenue for future research.