Tech is a top-tier research university that consistently receives an increasing amount of funding for research from year to year. This is due, in large part, to the superior-quality resources that our university provides to students and faculty. Yet, for all of our achievements and advancements, we are facing a major obstacle in keeping this trend alive.
Due to budget limitations, the library is struggling to provide professors and graduate students, the bulk of the university’s researchers, with new research materials and journals. Currently, the budget only allots enough funds to cover the already-established collection, leaving no room for growth nor advancement. This problem can be alleviated in two major ways.
First, all students, faculty and alumni must be aware of the issue. The library has been struggling to maintain its current supply of research material since 2009, the brunt of which has been carried by graduate students and their professors, and which has gone largely unnoticed by undergraduates. The Institute must come together to advocate for more and not let this issue fall by the wayside.
Second, the library must make itself more relevant to all students. The library should be the central nervous system of our university, a resource that we cannot go without. This can be achieved through a modernization of its facilities. The library is taking the right steps with its 2020 renovation plan, but it should better market its efforts to the student body to avoid becoming an extension of the Clough Commons.
In the end, the health of research on campus is directly correlated with the health of our library and the resources that it provides, and so we must guarantee that our university is provided with the research material that it needs in order to keep our university at the pinnacle of science and technology.