Long Range Plan 2003 - 2007 : Academic Libraries 

Academic libraries in Massachusetts have a long history that can be traced back to Harvard College in the 1630's. This began the development of many fine facilities and collections that are key to the educational process. This tradition has been supported both by generous gifts and talented personnel. The U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) has the responsibility for the collection, analysis, and reporting of educational statistics across the country. The NCES developed the Integrated Post Secondary Education Data System (IPEDS) as its core post secondary education data collection program in 1988. The academic libraries portion of the IPEDS survey is administered every other year and coordinated in Massachusetts by the IPEDS Coordinator at the Board of Library Commissioners. A total of 129 institutions of higher learning in Massachusetts confer degrees at, or above, the associate degree level (33 are public and 96 are privately supported.) Student enrollment statewide is approximately 415,616 (178,376 public and 237,240 private). (Digest of Educational Statistics, 2000, NCES.)

Both public and private institutions are affected by many of the same factors that impact other public institutions, such as financial support, societal pressures, and the need to blend traditional values and more scientific approaches. Libraries in public academic institutions showed some recovery from the massive legislative budget cuts that they experienced in the early 1990s. In FY1992 the budgets for these libraries was at $4.5 million. In FY2000, it had climbed back and exceeded $42.5 million. By the same token, the library budgets for privately supported academic libraries exceeded $173 in FY2000. Unfortunately the trajectory has once more changed direction; Massachusetts public higher education libraries were funded at $14 million for materials in FY2001, and have been recommended for $5 million dollars in funding for FY2002. Under the Board's Strategic Plan, academic libraries are eligible to join the regional multi-type library systems and share in the benefits and services provided that they meet membership eligibility requirements. As of the summer of 2001, 112 academic libraries were members of the six multi-type regions in Massachusetts.