We, the undersigned University of Oregon community members, UO-affiliated faculty, staff, and students, and academic and library colleagues from other institutions, are writing to express concern over layoffs for four librarians and three officers of administration, as well as the elimination of one vacant classified staff position and job non-reappointments for multiple student workers at the University of Oregon Libraries. The impacted librarians, staff, and student employees perform duties across essential library service areas, including in access services, cataloging, employee engagement, and support for public scholarship.

As at higher-education institutions across the country, the work of library faculty and staff at UO plays an integral role in the educational and research activities of the university. The institution’s mission statement reflects this by articulating an institutional purpose including “the generation, dissemination, preservation, and application of knowledge.”

The decision to enact layoffs at the UO Libraries is in conflict with this purpose.

As a U.S. federal depository library, the UO Libraries has a responsibility to provide reference assistance and facilitate access to government publications, yet the Cartographic and Government Information Librarian position will be eliminated.

Scholars’ Bank, the institutional repository of the University of Oregon, publishes and preserves scholarly work from departments across campus, including theses and dissertations and many scholarly articles which otherwise would not be available outside of paywalls. Despite this, the Institutional Repository Manager position will be eliminated.

The Public Scholarship Librarian position partners with faculty to create publicly available research and advance open knowledge initiatives, and at present their work includes a project funded by more than half a million dollars from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the University of Oregon Foundation’s Trustee Excellence Fund. This position will also be eliminated.

These are only three examples from the recent cuts, which will impact library services in many areas. In addition to librarian and other staff layoffs, many student worker positions were not reappointed, a de facto layoff for impacted student workers who play an essential role in the Libraries’ work.

We call on University leadership to take the steps included in the United Academics Resolution to Enhance Financial Transparency to Support Shared Governance and Budgetary Sustainability, to strengthen shared governance and financial transparency at the University of Oregon and avoid cuts like these at the libraries which, along with other cuts in academic units across campus over the summer and early autumn of 2025, will diminish the University’s ability to carry out its core educational mission for years to come.

We call on UO Libraries leadership to stand with library faculty and staff in strongly advocating, now and in the future, against such cuts, which diminish the ability of library employees to carry out their essential roles as part of the UO’s stated commitment to exceptional teaching, discovery, and service. We also call on UO Libraries leadership to increase shared governance and transparency within the libraries, as faculty, staff, and student workers are left to wonder about decision-making processes which will negatively impact so many core library services.

Signed,