Libraries to Buy Fewer Publications Due to Inflation

The University libaries purchasing power is being severely limited by the escalating prices of books and periodicals, Louis Martin, librarian of Harvard College said yesterday.

Since September many books which have been lost or stolen are not being replaced, and duplicates of journals are being phased out. "All the same," Martin said, "we still feel that we can meet the legitimate needs of the faculty and students."

Those most likely to be affected by the drop in purchasing power are graduate students and faculty members who do intensive and detailed research. Undergraduates, by and large, will be unaffected by the cut back, Martin said.

The foreign language libraries have been hurt the most by world-wide inflation and the devaluation of the dollar. Jane Struss, a library staff assistant at the Modern Language Center, said subscription prices for most European periodicals have doubled in the past year.

"We are operating with the same budget we had five years ago--$600--and soaring prices have forced us to cut back drastically," she said.

Eugene Wu, librarian of the Harvard--Yen hing library, said that they, too, had been severely restricted by the combined effect of inflation and devaluation. They have been forced to cancel numerous subscriptions to Japanese periodicals, and are unable to purchase many of the Japanese books they want. Japanese publications have risen 40 to 50 per cent in the past few months.

While Chinese and Korean publications have not risen as dramatically in price, Wu said, they are still much more expensive than last year.