It’s been a year since Kansas University announced it would close its printing services division, cut about 20 positions and outsource more than $2 million in printing business.

The move is saving KU money, said Barry Swanson, director of business services and purchasing, but it’s too soon to know how much.

The old printing services building is being renovated and will house public safety, entomology collections, staff, the invertebrate paleontology museum collection, and part of the anthropology collection. It’ll also have space for temporary storage of university catalogs.

Swanson said the closure was part of a broader change at KU toward greater reliance on computers and electronic transfers of information. He pointed out that KU also has moved to electronic billing. In the past, the university printed its own bills.

Printing services brought in revenues of $2.5 million in fiscal 2004. But, revenues had been declining, Swanson said. And Swanson predicts the university spends less on printing projects today.

KU was unable to provide information that could compare the costs for printing services in fall 2004 and fall 2005.

Andy Holzmeister and Bobette Puderbaugh, right, work at processing a campus mailing order for Kansas University Friday afternoon at Minuteman Press. KU now outsources more than million in printing business.

“It’s hard because the projects aren’t apples to apples,” Swanson said.

Instead, Swanson compiled costs for several jobs needed in the past and now covered by an outside vendor.

The university commencement program cost $18,912 when done by printing services, compared to $13,245 paid to an outside vendor. A newsletter that once cost $1,832, now costs $1,453 to print.

“Some projects, I’m sure, will cost more and some will cost less,” Swanson said. But overall, he said, he estimates the university sees a 25-percent savings.

The work has gone to local businesses, like Minuteman Press.

Owner Dee Bisel said she’s delighted for the business.

“We added about 70 KU departments to our list of customers,” she said. “It’s increased our business about 10 to 20 percent.”

Of the 22 people employed at printing services when it closed, 20 found work or retired, according to KU.

For French instructor Mary Byrd Kelly, it was convenient in the past to have the printing services copy center in Wescoe Hall, which also closed. But otherwise, Kelly said, the closure hasn’t made a huge difference.

Isidro Rivera, associate professor in the department of Spanish and Portuguese, also said the closure of the Wescoe copy center was inconvenient.

“It’s created some headaches for students and instructors in my building who relied on the copy center,” he said.

A new copy center, planned for Kansas Union, is expected to open this semester.