ACQNET: Re - Materials Budget (Summary of Responses)

Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 9:32 AM
From: Sabra Stockey (Monroe County Public Library)
<sabra_at_monroe.lib.in.us>
Subject: Re: Materials Budget (Summary of Responses)
 
Several months ago I submitted a query about what percentage of your
public library's materials budget was spent in various categories.  My
director had asked me to look at other libraries' materials budgets to see
if there were a pattern in what different public libraries spent on various
categories.  I was also interested in what categories other libraries used
to break down their materials budget.

One of the primary things I discovered was that I was very fortunate with
my library's budget.  Most of the libraries with the materials budget in
the range of $800,000 to $1,200,000 were much larger than my library and
had more branches.  I also noticed that there is no pattern in the
percentages spent in various categories.  The amount spent on electronic
resources varies greatly from state to state depending on whether or not
databases are available through the state.

One library sent me a web site which I found helpful.
http://www.lrs.org/asp_public/stats_2003.asp    (Colorado Public
Libraries).  Another helpful web sites is:
http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/dpi/dltcl/pld/lib_stat.html  (Wisconson Publlic
Libraries)

In addition to the query to ACQNET, I called a few libraries.  A total of 9 
libraries responded. These libraries' materials budgets ranged between 
$449,100 and $1414,000.  The percentage of the materials budget 
spent on books ranged from 51.5% to 72.3%.  The amount spent on 
electronic resources varied between 5.9% and 16.89%.  The amount spent 
on non-print ranged from 14.1% fo 34.5%.  For newspapers & magazines 
the range was between 3.1% and 12.4%.

I appreciate all the libraries that responded to my query.  Thank you!

Sabra Stockey
Collection Development Coordinator
Monroe County Public Library
303 East Kirkwood
Bloomington, Indiana 47408-3534




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