Despite budget cuts, library databases safe another year
by Rawly Bransom, Sports Editor

   As technology increases, its usage often means breaking down traditional ways.
   More recent library expenditures lean more toward technology based sources and less to the traditional and more familiar printed sources, Dr. Steven Hagstrom, NE Campus director of library services, said.
   Hagstrom said books the library would have once carried are being replaced with on-line databases.
   These databases allow students and faculty access to huge amounts of valid information with only a few seconds worth of research. Students can access the databases at home by logging onto the TCC Web site. TCC libraries will carry at least 47 different databases this fall, Hagstrom said.
   "We are very careful about which databases we use," he said. "We never want to use databases that are just indexes for where to find the information. So, if a database is not full text we cancel our subscription."
   The Tex Share program was founded by a TIF fund to allow free databases to state universities. Many students and faculty have worried that budgets cuts from the state will limit the database usage. Gov. Rick Perry's administration cut the TIF fund from the budget, destroying the Tex Share program.
   "There is not going to be any significant cuts for databases until fall of 2004 at the earliest," Dr. Theodore Drake, South Campus director of library services, said.
   According to Drake, TCC found $13,000 in its budget for those same databases the Tex Share once provided
   The ease of database usage is not the only reason for the changes. They also are usually more current than the books in the libraries.
   "It often takes up to four years to get a book into publication. That period includes research time, time to write the book and find a publisher, the editing, the printing and the distribution of the book. The databases allow the information to get out much faster." Hagstrom said.
   Magazines, journals and other periodicals are also lessening their hold on library budgets. Until the new budget is approved by the TCC board, no one knows which ones, if any, will be cut, but Drake does see a trend for professional periodicals.
   "I think professional journals and magazines will become all electronic access soon. It would be more economical for everyone," he said.
   Students tend to take both sides on the issue. Helena Johnson, a student on NE Campus, prefers computers for their speed and ease of use.
   "I still have to find a few things the old-fashioned way, but the Internet just makes it all easier," she said.
   Others students disagree and prefer the traditional books and periodicals.
   "On-line resources tend to be limited in what they show, not as accurate and often completely made up," Erik, a second-year student here at TCC, said.
   Students will find many periodicals in the TCC libraries this fall, but as on-line access grows, the amount of printed works students see in TCC libraries may lessen.
   Many entertainment magazines may be cut. Yet, library officials say they want to keep them so students and faculty can use the libraries as comfortable places to spend there time between classes.
   "I just want students, to think of the electronic databases as the HBO and Cinemax of the Internet; no pop-up ads. They are professionally written and are indexed for easier and more convenient access," Drake said.