1. Academic Library funding and
collections decision-making:
Who, when, how, what, and why?
Will Wakeling
Northeastern University
SSP Annual Meeting, San Francisco
June 2, 2004
3. Topics to be covered:
n Sources of collections funding
n Key decision makers
n Fund allocation methods
n How the money gets spent
n Some cancellation truths
n Some key issues for libraries
6/2/2004 SSP Annual Meeting 3
4. Where does the collections money
come from?
n Operational budget allocation
n Endowments and gifts
n Other special funding
– Accreditation uplifts
– Dowries for new faculty
– Seed funding for new programs
– Cost sharing with departments
6/2/2004 SSP Annual Meeting 4
5. Where does the collections money
come from? (cont.)
n Endowments and gifts:
v Annual giving v. endowments
v Restricted v. unrestricted gifts
v Sponsored projects and cyberplaquing
v Capital campaigning: the master list
6/2/2004 SSP Annual Meeting 5
6. Where does the collections money
come from? (cont.)
n Operational funding
vState grant or vote to public institutions
(eventually)
vTop-sliced funding for state purchasing
agencies or consortia acquiring databases or
aggregations state-wide
6/2/2004 SSP Annual Meeting 6
7. Where does the collections
money come from? (cont.)
n For Private institutions: an elaborate ritual
v Budget request preparation August/Sept 2004
v Budget bid application October 2004
v Budget priorities review Nov-Feb 2005
v Budget allocation FY06 May 2005
n Key components:
v Inflation coverage for journals and subs
v Proposals for levels of monograph coverage
v Flagging expensive e-product desiderata
6/2/2004 SSP Annual Meeting 7
8. Who are the key collections
decision-makers?
n The Provost/Provost’s Office
n The Library Director
n The Faculty
v Departmental liaisons
v Faculty Senate
v Library Advisory Committee
n AD for Collections/Resources, CDO, etc.
n Selectors/Bibliographers/Collection Managers
n Electronic Resources Committee
n Head of Acquisitions/Serials
n Consortial representative
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9. How do the funds get allocated?
Historical Plus
Subject-based Format-based
Allocation formulae
6/2/2004 SSP Annual Meeting 9
10. How do the funds get allocated?
(cont.)
Allocation formulae:
not e=mc2 but SLm+SNn+0.75 PDTq
Elements may include:
v Students numbers
v Faculty numbers
v Volume of publication
v Average prices (Bowker, YBP, Ebsco)
v Ratio of monograph/journal use dependence
v Special (fudge) factors (e.g. accreditations, collection
development policies and academic initiatives)
6/2/2004 SSP Annual Meeting 10
11. How do the funds get allocated?
(cont.)
n Formula-based budgeting may be applied to all of
collections budget, or to a subset
v e.g. monograph firm orders/approval plans/standing
orders
n Advent of high volume of electronic materials altering
balances: 70:30 rule for journals:books now has to
accommodate 12-15% for electronic resources
n The difficulty, of course, is in preventing subscription
inflation consuming all…
6/2/2004 SSP Annual Meeting 11
12. How does the money get spent?
Or “how many $50 decisions did you make today…?”
n Subscriptions
n Approval plans
vProfiling
vSlips
vQuality control and return rates
n Standing orders and continuations
n Firm orders
6/2/2004 SSP Annual Meeting 12
13. Why do journals or standing orders
get cancelled?
n Because it’s budget crunch or Serials Review time again (beginning
December, concluding September)
v Quality review
v Faculty consultation
v Usage data
v Price–hike, twigging or mutating data
v ILL data
v New competing requests
v Changing academic priorities
v Potential SPARC/Open Access options
n Because one or more of the elements above come independently into
play (reasons to avoid the Big Deal)
6/2/2004 SSP Annual Meeting 13
14. What are the key budgeting and
selections issues for libraries?
n Recurring v. one time costs
n Flexible pricing
n Timing
– Local spending deadlines
– Expensive purchases and EOY money
– E-resource decision-making - Trials
n Bundling; the good, the bad and the painful
n Licensing
n Digital Archiving
6/2/2004 SSP Annual Meeting 14
15. The only way to settle questions of
controversial issues among the people is by
the democratic method, the method of
discussion, of criticism, of persuasion and
education, and not by the method of
coercion or repression. Mao Zedong
6/2/2004 SSP Annual Meeting 15
