Economic considerations of user charges are presented along with economic principles and implications of charging for specific library materials and services. Alternative pricing policies and their implications are described, and, to illustrate the complexity and subtle effects of charging, a numerical example for interlibrary loans is also given.…

Funding sources and uses, and major expense categories are discussed. Trends indicate most academic libraries get funding from their own universities and in some instances from substantial gifts and endowments. Materials budgets have been redistributed in favor of serials at the expense of books. (Author/MBR)

Establishes a managerial context for the expenditure of funds for research and development by academic libraries. Topics discussed include for-profit research and development; sustaining a competitive advantage; traditional library funding strategies; organization environment; and library strategies for facing an uncertain funding environment.…

This empirical research examined scale economies of academic research libraries and developed a total cost function for estimating economies of scale. Suggests that libraries in general, and academic research libraries in particular, are information provision organizations that provide multiproducts and multiservices. Findings indicate that slight…

The rationale for using Activity-Based Costing (ABC) in a library is to allocate indirect costs to products and services based on the factors that most influence them. This paper discusses the benefits of ABC to library managers and explains the steps involved in implementing ABC in the user services area of an Australian academic library.…

Presents a trend analysis, using the college library as a model, which maps internal and external financial contacts to show the complexity of library financial dealings. Topics discussed include Total Quality Management; the library's financial role in the parent organization and in worldwide finances; and the profession's response to change.…

Reviews the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) activities regarding special collections. Highlights include local and collaborative approaches; budget pressures; access to special collections; digitization programs; recruiting qualified staff; results of a survey of ARL special collections; and the need for ongoing statistics for special…

Analyzes the impact of the rising cost of materials on academic libraries as reflected in members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). Highlights include total library expenditures; materials expenditures; comparisons with price indexes; and the impact of journal…

Discussion of the development of undergraduate libraries focuses on Harvard's Lamont Library. Topics include financial issues, including sources of revenue, computerization, and personnel costs; technological changes, including hypermedia and the virtual library; and organizational changes, highlighting the merger of libraries at Cornell…

Using data on the cost of interlibrary loan, journal prices, and journal use, this article presents an economic analysis of the SUNY (State University of New York) Express consortium and the potential savings from consortium delivery of scholarly articles and joint collections development. Concludes that while considerable savings are possible…

Presents budgeting requirements that are needed to meet the electronic library needs in small- and medium-sized academic libraries based on library automation activities at Southern Methodist University (Texas) and a review of the literature. Highlights include cooperative ventures; fund raising; personnel needs; benefits of automation; strategic…

Examines the academic library's information resources budget. Topics discussed include allocation methodologies; academic library budgets; economic and social issues; the library and its relationship to the university; technology and publishing; scholarly communication; user demands; alternatives, including redirecting the budget away from print…