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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (July 14, 1983)
JULY 14,1583 1 rr i i 7 services cu 11 i n i I i SUMMKR NKBRASKAN o mi BY JOANNE YOUNG A shortfall in the operating budget of the University of Nebraska libraries is blamed for cuts in library services and the reshuf fling of library personnel, according to the dean of University of Nebraska libraries. "The University Libraries cannot con tinue to operate as they have in the past. There just isn't the money available to ab sorb all of the duties that must be per formed," Dean Gerald Rudolph said. In a letter sent this month to the univer sity community, Rudolph described meas ures being taken, which he said might be critical for the survival of the library sys tem. Money appropriated for the operating fund for the 11 university libraries, exclud ing the law library, has not kept up with inflation over at least the past five years, Rudolph said. The operating fund, which covers supplies, equipment and computer cataloging time, falls about $00,000 short of the $260,000 needed to pay expenses, he said. "Telephone costs go up, postage prices go up," Rudolph said, "and those costs have to be made up somewhere." Rudolph said those costs are made up by taking money from the salary and wages budget. When that happens, he said, faculty and staff must be shuffled around. Rudolph said the university is instituting a fee for interlibrary lending services to state libraries in order to discourage them from using the university library system. That will free one staff member for other duties and attempt to make the service self supporting. "That change won't, affect you (univer sity faculty, staff and students)," Rudolph said, "but it will affect our relations with the rest of the state because ... it represents a sharp curtailment of the University Librar ies' public service commitment to the other libraries in the state." Reductions of student assistants causing delays in reshelving books and periodicals, a lack of current information in the card cata logs and inaccuracies in record-keeping will affect the university community, Rudolph said. He said those reductions last year re sulted in a "housekeeping nightmare." Minor changes in library hours are also planned. Beginning in the fall, the libraries will open at 8 a.m. instead of 7:30 a.m., and the libraries will close on Saturdays when there is a home football game. The libraries have been able to get by on WASTE that I worked in the university before," he said. "We're not interested in going over these old programs. What we're interested in is present conditions." Gardecki said that, on the contrary, Haes seems to running the licensing program for the health department. He said Haes served as chairman for a meeting between the uni versity and the health department on Mon day and was the chief spokesman for the de partment. "Not only that," he said, " Haes is making it very difficult for us. He's making up his own regulations." Gardecki said that Haes objected to the university using a compactor to handle radioactive waste. "Haes said he thought a compactor would cause contamination," Gardecki said. "When I asked him if he ever worked with one, he said he hadn't. So I asked him why he thought a compactor wouldn't work. Haes said, T just have a feeling.' " - Gardecki said that compactors are used throughout the country to help deal with radioactive waste. the current budget, by shuffang personnel and moving funds around, Rudolph said. And although these measures are thought to be temporary, Rudolph said he doesn't see any change in funding soon. Rudoph said the university administra tion has been generous by not cutting the li brary budget, but administrators have said there will be no increases. "Other universities have dipped into the libraries for reductions in staff," he said. "UN-L has never done that." The university may have to face a 2 per cent budget reduction next fiscal year, he said. If told that will happen, Rudolph said he has to be ready with a plan. The library faculty is already the lowest paid faculty on campus, according to Ru dolph. The staff vacancy rate is 18 percent and Rudolph predicts it will be as high or higher by the end of this year, because many personnel are leaving. Rudolph said this is a frustrating time for him as dean of the libraries. "It's not a very nice place to be", he said, "when you have to tell people they will have no job." Rudolph said last week he had to tell three people they would not have jobs at the end of the year. "We've got a good group with fine ideas and a good faculty on campus," he said. "But we cannot give the (library) service every body deserves, and that is frustrating." Rudolph said he is hoping times will get better and things will improve, but then he thinks, maybe this is the future of the uni versity. That's what's frustrating, he said. Rudolph said the current lack of money for the libraries affects the quality of the university, although he declined to say how much. Quality faculty will not come to a univer sity with a poor library system, because fac ulty depend on the library system for pres tige and job enhancement, heaid. "Most students don't make that kind of decision," he said. "But once you get here, if you get a poor education, you should com plain as loudly as you can." "We must survive this economic poverty and at the same time still try to continue to provide the library services that you de serve," Rudolph said in his letter to the uni versity community. "Should our ability to survive lessen dramatically, then we will need to think of reducing the libraries' hours, philosophically abhorrent though that idea may be to me and you." i Continued from Page 1 "I think that Haes is out to give the uni versity problems," Gardecki said. The health department's action has made his job at UN-L more difficult, said Gar decki. If the broad-scope license had not been withdrawn, he said, most of the non compliance items in the survey would have been taken care of quickly. Now, he said, he was going to have to spend most of his time helping people fill out their individual li cense forms and "putting out fires." Gardecki said it would take at least six months before the university could apply for a new broad-scope license. Haes denied that he was biased against his previous employer. "I'm concerned and I am genuine," he said. "I will state categorically that I do not have any personal vendettas against the uni versity. I am interested in the health and safety of the people working at the univer sity. "Some people say that I am digging skel etons out of the closet," Haes said. "I say these are live bodies, they are not skeletons." State will ask Medicaid penalty waiver The Associated Press Because of errors made two years ago in state Medicaid payments, the federal gov ernment is assessing a $1.58 nillion penalty against the state of Nebraska, Welfare Di rector Gina Dunning said Wednesday. She said she plans to request a waiver of the penalty and also plans to challenge the method by which the 1930-81 error rate was calculated. The money would be taken out of the state's claim of federal funds for the Medic aid program and would have to be replaced with state revenue, said Jerry Bahr, admin istrator of research and statistics for the state Weifare Department. He said the federal government probably would review the waiver request before withholding the money. The state expects to receive about 8S.6 million in federal funds for the Medicaid program this fiscal year. State and county revenues also support the program, which pays for medical care for elderly, disabled and low-income people. Nebraska's error rate on Medicaid pay ments was 6.05 percent from October 1980 to September 1981, according to the federal Health Care Financing Administration. The financing agency administrator said the errors were made primarily in pay ments to people whose resources were too great for them to be eligible for Medicaid, and in a failure by some clients to report changes in their circumstances, making them ineligible for the program. 11:: I i: ' ! ' I f'; If 1m i i Photo by Sheryl Neyens Shelves need restocking at Love Library. Rural McLean man dies when tractor overturns McLEAN (AP) A rural McLean man was killed Tuesday afternoon when the trac tor he was driving overturned in his drive way, Pierce County authorities said. 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