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South African Higher Education Libraries have little to celebrate as they prepare for the national South African Library Week (SALW)(15 -22 March 2014), due to the double whammy of unfavourable exchange rates and the introduction of VAT on electronic material.

The provision of scholarly electronic information to the higher education and training system is like provision of oxygen by the lungs to an athlete. Without a plentiful and fresh supply, there is no way the athlete can compete.

This library service is essential for world class tertiary learning, teaching and research because the majority of academic e-journals, e-books, and bibliographic databases (including video and image databases) are published in Europe and North America. This includes research produced by academics from South African universities. Cutting edge research and teaching are dependent on access to the latest published research results in these journals. Without such material higher education in South Africa would fall behind the rest of the world. In fact, in an effort to stimulate world-class research, certain higher education research funding is made available by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) on condition that academics publish their research in prestigious, high impact, overseas journals.

Scholarly electronic information resources from overseas publishers are purchased in Euros, Dollars and Pounds Sterling.  The Rand has depreciated heavily over major currencies, losing 33% of its value against the Euro in two years (29% against the USD), 24% of its value over the past year (15% against the USD) to 12 March 2014. Now National Treasury is introducing 14% VAT on all electronic material with effect from 1 April 2014. While VAT can be claimed back in certain circumstances, the reality is that this 14% loss from certain library budgets will never be recovered.

Ms Laila Vahed, Chairperson of the South African National Library and information Consortium (SANLiC) sums it up like this: “Because of other pressures bearing on higher education budgets, including the fact that state funding for universities has not kept pace with enrolment growth, it is unlikely that libraries will be able to recover these losses from their relative institutional funds. This will hit libraries at previously disadvantaged institutions the most due to a lack of capacity to recover VAT and a dependency on library consortia deals where they rely on the participation of larger institutions to access material at an affordable, reduced price.”

The combined effect of these events is that higher education library purchasing power has effectively been cut by over 40% between 2013 and 2014.  Fewer resources will be made available to students for learning, to lecturers for teaching and to researchers for producing world class research. Open access material does not escape these challenges because the access is made possible through a “producer pays” model that will also impact directly on library budgets.

Libraries are already being forced to cut back on their planned journal and database subscriptions as well as purchases of e-books and other electronic material.  This could mean that, on top of having access to less of the cutting edge publications, South African researchers, lecturers and students will not have access to some of the research produced by South African academics and researchers which is usually financed from the national fiscus.

Ms Lucile Webster, Chairperson of the National Council for Library and Information Services (NCLIS) is quick to point out that, “we must not forget that public libraries also subscribe to online resources for the general public.  After all, the mandate of the public library is to be the local gateway to knowledge, to promote lifelong learning, independent decision- making and cultural development of the individual and society at large. The public library is seen as the institution that will bridge the digital divide for the masses and is recognized as a key factor in achieving the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations.  To ensure that information is disseminated as widely as possible public libraries have embraced the digital world.  The introduction of 14% VAT will compromise access to a resource (public library) that is generally thought of as ‘the poor man’s university’.”

This Bill of Rights, the “cornerstone of democracy in South Africa” states in chapter 2, 29.(b), that everyone has the right to “further education, which the state, through reasonable measures, must make progressively available and accessible.”. 

• The white paper on Higher Education and Training (approved by Cabinet on 20 November 2013), the “definitive statement of the government’s vision for the post-school system” (p.vii) spells out the DHET’s intention to “expand access, improve quality and increase diversity of provision.” (p. xi) In addition, it makes it clear that the DHET wishes to increase research and innovation, improving the quality of research, and building on areas of strength identified as important for national development. (P.xiv). In spite of important strides made, the statement acknowledges that “South Africa is still not producing enough SET (Science, Engineering and Technology) graduates to meet its economic development objectives” (p.28).

• The Department of Science and Technology DST’s Strategic Plan for 2011-2016 (p.4) lists similar goals and objectives: “To build world-class STI [Science, Technology and Innovation] infrastructure to extend the frontiers of knowledge, train the next generation of researchers and enable technology development and transfer as well as knowledge interchange.”

Introducing 14% VAT on digital media is at best creating unprecedented strain on already stretched national assets and at worst is unconstitutional.

It is for these reasons that the higher education library fraternity, represented by CHELSA, LIASA, NCLIS and SANLiC are united in calling for a rethink on the implementation of 14% VAT on scholarly electronic information by Treasury with effect from 1 April 2014. In addition the fraternity is calling for urgent, co-ordinated and inclusive initiatives to remedy the squeeze on library assets.

Ujala Satgoor, President of the Library and Information Association of South Africa (LIASA), stated that, “academic libraries and librarians are critical partners to the research endeavours of South African universities by concertedly providing 24/7 on-site and remote access to current, relevant and appropriate electronic resources to students, academics and researchers. Without sufficient access to cutting edge, world-class, scholarly electronic information the South African higher education system cannot meet the national learning, teaching, research and innovation objectives to strengthen our economy and facilitate a better life for all.”

Satgoor stressed that, “the imposition of 14% VAT on electronic resources will further exacerbate constrained library resources budgets influenced by annual price increases and fluctuating exchange rates.”  She went on to say that, “well-resourced academic and research libraries are intrinsic to the DHET academic and research objectives.  Without access to up-to-date world research the government’s aim to engender a knowledge economy, will be compromised!”

Dr Buhle Mbambo-Thata, Chairperson of CHELSA put it this way: “This will have major negative effects on teaching, learning, and research and erode gains so far made in global rankings of  South African universities.  Furthermore, it will have direct effect on students as the cost of servicing them will be passed onto them.”

Webster (NCLIS) stated that, “since South Africa’s democratic transition in 1994, the right to education and access to information for knowledge became a priority to right the wrongs of the past. Studies have shown that South African learners lag far behind their peers in Africa and in the world. The introduction of VAT of electronic resources will negate the positive developments that were made these last few years and have an undesirable impact on the services offered by all kinds of libraries and on education in general.”

Vahed (SANLiC) added that “these and other modern library services play a crucial role in addressing the problem of low throughput rates of students at universities. The lack of adequately resourced libraries, especially in historically black universities, is specifically identified as one of the problems that aggravate low graduation numbers.”

The Department of Higher Education and Training and the Department of Science and Technology must act immediately by engaging with the Treasury and the higher education and research library fraternity to remedy the situation of diminishing library resources by:

• Placing a moratorium on the introduction of VAT on scholarly electronic information
• Allowing for further engagement between Treasury,  DHET and higher education institutions
• Working with stakeholders to find solutions to this resource crisis such as,
o Centralised purchasing of critical online information resources as national resources, and
o Recycling VAT collected to subsidise library budgets directly