Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2001 12:28:27 -0500
From: Mary Loe <loem_at_Oswego.EDU>
Subject: Acq budget and videos
A colleague passed your query on about policies related to limiting
video purchases to a portion of a subject area's allocation. We did
this a few years ago when I noticed that a couple of departments were
asking for and getting growing number of expensive videos for their
classroom use. This occurred when the campus budget for what was
Learning Resources had been cut, and only library and department and
dean funds were left for such purchases. I, as Coordinator of
Collection Development, brought up the issue of proportion and balance
with the Collection Development Committee. I wanted some firm
guidelines, but knew that subject areas are quite different in their needs.
Theater, Communications Studies, and Anthropology are examples of areas
that justifiably use videos more than most other areas. We decided that
no more than 1/3 of a subject area's monographic budget should be spent
on videos. The monographic budget is what's left after periodicals and
indexes are taken off the top. If a fund had pressure to use more than
1/3 at some point, the area selector would need to talk to me about
balance in the allocation that year. This policy has worked fine for
3-4 years; I have had to bring it up twice to make people more selective
about their video purchases.
Hope this helps you some.
Mary Loe
Received on Tue Nov 27 2001 - 14:45:47 EST