The Budget Committee has approved an Instructional Equipment Fund from the California Community College Chancellor’s Office for Contra Costa College’s Library and Learning Resource Center to purchase new books to update its collection.

Library department co-Chairperson Andrew Kuo said the instructional equipment funds application was submitted in late September with a grant of $66,000 that will improve the Library’s services and resources.

However, Business Services Director Mariles Magalong said they are still in the process of finalizing the instructional equipment Library fund and that will happen after their budget meeting next Wednesday.

“We just don’t have an exact date of when it will take effect,” she said.

Library department co-Chairperson Judy Flum, who has been working for 15 years in CCC’s Library, said when the grant was approved, she said she felt “delighted” the Library finally had money to update its book collection.

She said the grant will not be used solely on books, but also allocated to different areas in the Library, such as digital and electronic materials, that need improvements.

The money distribution of these resources includes $10,000 for print books, $30,000 for e-books, $21,000 for stream media and $5,000 for DVDs.

While the grant is on its way, the Library currently faces a poor book budget, where most books are outdated and torn out.

“Books can become outdated and sometimes it’s not a problem,” nursing major Rico Salvador said. “However, when it comes to textbooks, especially in the sciences where information gets updated, I believe those textbooks should be replaced with new ones.”

Flum said according to the Equity Plan Committee only 24 percent of the Library’s books were published within the last 12 years, when that number should be at least 54 percent.

“CCC has an extremely low, poor book budget,” she said. “Back then, the budget of the Library was approximately $8,000. Last year, the book budget was $11,000, which is still low in comparison to the average book budget of $50,000.”

Because CCC falls short on its book budget, students often have trouble finding updated information for their writing assignments, she said.

“That’s why our Library subscribes to databases and e-books, which we pay for every year,” Flum said. “These resources offer updated information students can utilize for their writing assignments.”

Senior Library and Learning Resource Center Assistant Tadalech Yoseph said the Library only provides one copy of reserved books for a limited time, not enough for 30 students. Because of that, the books are heavily used with pages torn out.

“We want to help many students gain access to resources,” Yoseph said.