In the spring 2004 all CUNY libraries benefitted unexpectedly from what the University calls the Community College Investment Program. (The community colleges are funded 50% by the state/50% by the city; when CUNY raised tuition at the senior colleges there was no real need to increase the cost of attending a two-year school. However, in the interest of parity, the University raised tuition for all CUNY students, returning surplus dollars to the community colleges where the money has been used for a variety of special purposes, including purchasing library resources.)
CUNY Dean Michael Ribaudo suggested to the community college chief librarians that they spend part of the money coming their way on resources that could be shared by students across the University. Lists of potential resources were compiled and in the end we were able to add $1,095,919 worth of new materials. It was agreed that:
Some of these titles were new to the Brooklyn College Library; in other cases, we were already subscribing to resources, using funds from our own budget. Once the University begins to pay for these products, money in our budget will be freed to purchase other types of library materials. In 2003-2004 the savings we realized (approximately $16,400) was spent on books, the area most gravely injured by the budget cuts of the last two years. In the next two fiscal years, we expect to realize about $38,000 annually. While the Library's base budget was cut $167,000 last year and again this year, and $38,000 represents only 22% of that cut, it is still something we are glad to have. The University has guaranteed to pay for these subscriptions for three years.