Six electronic databases have been cut by the LSU Library after the Louisiana Board of Regents eliminated funding for electronic resources accessible through LOUIS, the Louisiana Library Network.The Board of Regents has served as a major financial component of LOUIS for the past 15 years, supplying two-thirds of its annual budget, but the board announced June 30 it would provide $500,000 to last for two months and then cease.”It went to pay for these two months of access for the databases as we decided how we would come up with the rest of the money and which databases we actually had to cancel,” said Nancy Colyar, assistant dean of LSU Libraries.The months of June and July were used to make preparations for the academic year, Colyar said. LOUIS members statewide created and ranked a list of the key databases. After a priority list was generated, the deans voted and all member libraries agreed to increase their membership fees to compensate for the difference in budget.”We are hoping, at LSU, that the [Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Jack Hamilton] might find a way to pay that extra amount for us so we don’t have to cut anything else from our budget,” Colyar said. “We know he has heard us; we just don’t know what LSU can do considering its own conditions.”If  funding can’t be found, the library plans to downsize journal subscriptions and the book budget, Colyar said.The library cut six of the 72 databases for this year, according to the LSU Library website. These databases include WebFeat/360 Search, SPORTDiscus, Oxford English Dictionary Online, CQ Global Researcher, WorldBook Online and International Political Science Abstracts (IPSA).The eliminated resources were selected based on use and content. Some databases that only provide abstracts, not the full text of articles, are rarely utilized, said Michael Russo, associate librarian and instruction coordinator.”There is no major impact,” Russo said. “Of course it takes away sources of information, but in some cases it won’t really matter.”Russo, who coordinates Library Information Science courses, said that while the cuts are unfortunate, they will only affect the individual instructors in a minor way based on their curriculum.”But losing something important like LexisNexis would have a major impact because there aren’t any other newspaper databases like it,” Russo added.Major databases set the tone for college-level research, mass communication and math junior Christine Derbins said.”Writing a research paper without a database would lower the material I could address and the depth to which I could address it,” Derbins said. “Without them, I don’t know where students would go to get research done.”Major databases were saved from the chopping block by the LOUIS members who committed to self-fund resources, Colyar said.”None of us could have been able to pay for these on our own,” she said. “As a group we get a much better price. Together we buy $19 million worth of resources for $4 million — that’s a bargain.”But administrators fear this is only the beginning of setbacks.”Everything we’ve been told is that next year will be worse,” Colyar said. “The good part is LOUIS has 10 months to talk about things and prioritize a little better.”The library is continuing to purchase electronic versions of material for students and is maintaining the inter-library loan system, Colyar  said. She also stressed the importance of student awareness and involvement.For more information, students are encouraged to visit the LSU Library website, Facebook and Twitter pages.”Students aren’t exactly powerless,” Russo said. “Whenever these issues come up, it’s not enough to sit and watch it happen — stay aware of what’s going on and respond accordingly.”____Contact Sydni Dunn at [email protected]