Budget allocation decisions have become far more complex and difficult. One obvious reason is the shift from print to electronic purchases. This along with the lack of increased funding to sustain these collections has created a scenario in which all purchasing decisions need to be made with precise planning. This article examines the fund…

The year 2009 will be remembered as one of angst, with the economy dominating news around the world. Few libraries were immune to the extraordinary financial pressures. The library marketplace by year's end was in a weakened position, with prospects of a long recovery at best. Concern persists that even deeper budget cuts will come when federal…

This report presents a model developed to examine costs of public library services, such as reference, circulation, and special programs, to be used by librarians in implementing a program budget and planning a budget system. Allocations for personnel costs, materials costs, costs of supplies and services, technical processing costs, reference use…

This is the first in a series of articles describing the many aspects of the community of libraries which has been coalescing under the aegis of the Federal Library Committee. (Author)

Explains activity-based costing (ABC), discusses the benefits of ABC to library managers, and describes the steps involved in implementing ABC in an Australian academic library. Discusses the budgeting process in universities, and considers benefits to the library. (Author/LRW)

Discusses budgeting in corporate libraries as a basic tool of financial management. Highlights include focusing on goals; developing a list or matrix of services; resources needed for each service; shared costs; types of budgets, including operating budget, capital budget, and cash budget; and approaches to budgeting, including incremental…

Even in the best of times, librarians have to be concerned about funding. Librarians who are faced with reducing expenditures have to consider which of them are essential for the institution to fulfill its mission. With all the changes that today's information technologies have brought, the library's role both now and in the future is not as…

This study is an outgrowth of the plans and programs set in motion by the study of professor Ralph Blasingame, Rutgers University Graduate School, in 1968, and the 1969 legislation setting up the Ohio Library Development Plan (OLDP). Its purposes are to describe the system of financing public libraries in Ohio, to identify problem areas, and to…

Director of Iowa State University's Media Resources Center argues that fiscal progress is the most reliable measure of functional progress or growth. How money is controlled to allow for allocation of funds and manipulation of service priorities is described as well as how service functions are managed. (MBR)

Presents a chronological overview of the initiation and operation of the State University of New York at Albany library's computer-based reference services, with a discussion of costs, planning, organizational, and managerial considerations. (Author/CWM)

Discusses the need for research libraries to develop a greater sense of financial accountability, both from a moral standpoint and to provide better services. Topics covered include areas where cost benefit tradeoffs have been neglected, possible consequences of not becoming accountable, and the debate over user fees. (12 references) (CLB)

Discussion of new developments in library/information services and the influences of technological and societal factors focuses on funding considerations. Topics discussed include budget preparation, allocation, monitoring, and evaluation; and alternative sources of funding, including leveraging, grants, fundraising and development, fees and…

Identifies resource allocation patterns and establishes a basis for understanding academic library service costs through a cost analysis of public services. Results of a survey of 101 academic libraries indicate that libraries have responded to increased costs for resource materials by increasing that budget and decreasing the budget for salaries.…

This report presents two approaches to measuring inflation for public libraries: (1) an approach based on a fixed-market-basket (FMB) of the prices of library inputs, which yields a public library input cost index (PLICI), and (2) an approach based on an econometric model of library services and costs, which yields a public library cost of…

Summarizes three conference presentations on the effects of the economic climate on academic libraries in Iowa. These presentations focused on the impact of austerity budgets on collection development, library services and personnel, and possible management approaches to retrenchment in these areas. (CLB)