When the College budget for 2013/14 was approved, the Library unfortunately did not receive an enhancement request for additional funding to continue our Safari Tech Books subscription, whose renewal cost was $12,555 for 4 simultaneous users.
Safari is a high use and current collection of over 16,000 cutting-edge ebooks on a wide range of technology topics including web programming and specialized design applications. In addition, many of the titles such as those on WORD and EXCEL have college-wide relevance. Since the start of the subscription in July last year, over 700 titles have been used with over 75% of them viewed 5 times or more.
Some examples from the collection (click book cover to read):
Because the Library was unable to absorb Safari’s high cost into our status quo budget, we turned to interested departments to solicit their support. We are pleased to announce that 60% of Safari’s total cost for this year’s access has been generously funded by the following departments:
- Continuing Studies
- Computer Science
- Professional Photo Imaging
- Publishing
- Design Formation
- Creative Arts division
The remaining 40% of the cost will be funded directly by the Library, following some difficult decisions regarding low-use resources.
We would like to say a BIG thank you to the departments who have pledged their support toward continued access to this valuable resource–the Library’s collection is a richer one because of you!
