Sales Tax on Periodicals a Blow to College Libraries : Education: It will cost UC San Diego alone $182,000. Universities may stop buying some research journals.

The new California sales tax on periodicals will cost the state’s university and public libraries more than $4 million this year in unforeseen levies on magazines and academic journals.

UC San Diego alone will face a $182,000 sales tax bill for periodicals, and San Diego State University will have to fork over $100,000. And the San Diego public library system will pay $32,000.

“There’s not much we can do about it, except cut the number of journals we buy,” San Diego State librarian Don Bosseau said. “We’ve already cut 16% of the titles we purchase, down to 10,000 from about 12,000. And for the past five years, the state hasn’t provided enough money to cover the high inflation, 20% or more, in some journal prices, let alone the additional costs through the tax.”

The tax will particularly damage the state’s most prestigious university research collections used by students and scholars not only in California but throughout the nation and abroad. Some specialized academic journals can cost as much as $10,000 a year for a single subscription.

Those libraries already are reeling from budget cuts, higher periodical costs, and a weak dollar in figuring foreign exchange rates for the many scientific journals now published in Europe and Asia.

Karin Wittenborg, associate university librarian at UCLA, said that inflation and other increases have eroded her buying power by 40% over the past several years, even before the 8% tax levy.

The nine-campus University of California system will pay more than $1.7 million for fiscal year 1991-92. Among the larger campuses: UCLA will face a $300,000 bill, UC Berkeley and UC Davis each a $275,000 tab, UC Irvine $181,000, UC Santa Barbara $180,000, and UC Riverside $85,000. Stanford, the state’s most prestigious private university, will pay between $250,000 and $300,000 in new taxes.

The 20-member California State University system will pay an additional $1 million, with the tab at individual campuses depending on the number of students and the size of the library collections. SDSU’s $100,000 is at the high end; smaller campuses, such as Cal State Dominguez Hills, will pay about $29,500.

Even the 107-campus state community college system, whose libraries buy far fewer of the more expensive academic journals, will face a new $200,000 bill systemwide.

George Soete, associate university librarian at UCSD, said most libraries might be able to scrape through the fiscal year without major subscription cancellations by using contingency funds and making fewer book purchases. But without relief soon, he said that librarians face “cannibalizing” one or more portions of their collections to protect other portions.

Even a temporary cancellation of some journals will result in a permanent chronological gap for those serials, he warned.

Several public university librarians noted the irony of the state taxing purchases made with state money. “It’s the equivalent of just throwing the money away,” Bosseau said.

The UC system is supporting a bill by State Sen. Quentin Kopp (I-San Francisco) which would exempt from the sales tax free newspapers and periodicals and purchases of newspapers and periodicals made by nonprofit organizations under limited circumstances. In most states, libraries are exempt from sales taxes.

“All this amounts to a price increase, on top of other price increases we haven’t been able to keep up with,” Dennis E. Smith, director of library affairs in UC’s Office of the President, said.

The Berkeley library has cut $400,000 from its periodicals budget the last two years because of insufficient money to cover inflation and other costs. It hopes to absorb the sales tax for this year by cutting back on book purchases and using emergency funds provided by chancellor’s office at Berkeley.

“But that’s money we could otherwise use to make up for past cuts and transfers,” said David Ferrell, Berkeley’s acting associate university librarian. The campus serials collection is considered the nation’s largest, or second-largest after Harvard, among all universities, depending on the method used to count items.

“And it’s not just the numbers but our concentration in bioscience, in foreign materials, in items from Slavic countries and from (Soviet) collections” that are sought by scholars everywhere, Ferrell said.

The sales tax will cost the already burdened public libraries about $1 million statewide in the first year.

The Los Angeles Public Library’s costs will increase $82,000, the Los Angeles County Library $102,000, and the Pasadena Public Library $6,683. The San Diego Public Library will have no choice but to cut back on the number of titles and quantity of each publication, librarian Diane Bebber said.