Explores conflicting views of libraries as warehouses and providers of information. Provides background, highlighting rising serial subscription costs; develops understanding of the conflict by describing libraries based solely on ownership and access; and concludes that the successful library of the future will strike a balance between materials…

Faced with increased responsibilities, little social status, modest salaries, and leaner materials budgets, teachers contribute significant amounts of their own money (perhaps $1 billion yearly) for instructional purposes. A southern Minnesota study found that a typical teacher spent about $492 yearly to enrich students' learning experience. Such…

Discusses how NCEA offers financial planning support to members in a variety of ways, including tailored on-site consultation, regional workshops and sessions at the annual convention. Offers a list of publications that can be helpful in planning and conducting development programs and a directory of funding resources for Catholic activities. (MZ)

Presents the 1997 U.S. Serials Services Price Index, produced by the Library Materials Price Index Committee of the American Library Association's Association for Library Collections and Technical Services. Finds a 3.9% increase over 1996. Includes eight tables covering U.S. Serial Services, business, general and humanities, law, science and…

Outlines trends in school finance litigation. Examines definitions of fiscal equity, reviews 20 years of litigation, and analyzes recent legal activity. Recent litigation has challenged some states' school finance systems. Court decisions have split evenly regarding permissible disparities in per-pupil operating expenditures, a measure of…

From 1960 to 2000, total expenses to rear a rural child to age 18 increased in real terms. Food expenses decreased, but child care and educational expenses increased more. Details are presented on child-rearing expenditures by low-, middle-, and higher-income rural and urban families on housing, food, transportation, clothing, health care, child…

Presents an annotated list of the best reference materials published in 2001. Discusses activity in the reference publishing industry; costs; and lists print materials, Web sites, databases, and CD-ROMs. (LRW)

Explores the Malaysian computer science and information technology publication productivity as indicated by data collected from three Web-based databases. Relates possible reasons for the amount and pattern of contributions to the size of researcher population, the availability of refereed scholarly journals, and the total expenditure allocated to…

Studied the long-term outcomes and costs of the Success for All program using data from the Baltimore Public Schools, Maryland. Success for All students completed eighth grade at a younger age, with better achievement outcomes, fewer special education placements, fewer retentions, and at the same educational expense. (SLD)

Examines the development and use of a resource-components cost model for local planning, policy, and decision making in special education. A local district case study found that any systematic examination of special education instructional costs must allow for variations in student use and that district budgets materially understate real special…

Among nonmetro retirement counties, those with a relatively high (over 16 percent) proportion of elderly were economically much stronger than total retirement counties. Strengths of retirement counties included rapid growth in population and employment and moderate increases in income. Potential weaknesses were reduced public spending for…

Describes a study at the University of Michigan that examined the extent of serials duplication among branch and divisional libraries, the portion of the serials budget made up of duplications, and the relationship between duplication and serials characteristics. Ways to avoid serials duplication are suggested based on the findings of this study.…

Describes a study that used survey questionnaire and case study methodologies to compare proportional relationships among services to children, teenagers, and adults in California public libraries during fiscal years 1977-78 and 1982-83. It is concluded that the findings both support and refute the belief that youth services received limited…

A table ranking research libraries (both university and non-university libraries) that compares volumes in library, volumes added in 1987-88, current serials, total staff, and total expenditures is presented. (MLW)

Compares mean 1985 subscription prices and mean cents per thousand characters of scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Similar comparisons are made for journals published by associations, scholarly organizations, and commercial publishers, and the data from this study are compared with data from a study using 1973…