Is Louisiana Losin' Louis?

La. library network threatened by cuts. (Baton Rouge Advocate, 3/22/2011)

Excerpt:    From helping offer online search access at public libraries to supplying university physicists with obscure academic journals, nothing connects Louisiana research quite like “LOUIS,” college faculty say.

But the Louisiana Library Network, called LOUIS, is at risk and has no dedicated funding for the next fiscal year, which starts in July, because of ongoing budget cuts to the program that started last year.

Faculty from LSU, which houses LOUIS, and the University of New Orleans are taking a proactive step of sending resolutions Tuesday in support of LOUIS funding to the Louisiana Board of Regents and legislators on education committees.

“It (LOUIS) is not a really glitzy item … and it’s a little bit invisible,” said Kevin Cope, president of the LSU Faculty Senate that approved the resolution last week.

LOUIS is not a “luxury service” for insular faculty researchers, Cope said. Rather, the network is a critical backbone of higher education and libraries that results in the savings of more than $15 million annually by sharing valuable resources, he said.