[Original posting on this topic appeared in COLLDV-L no. 1970 and is
reproduced below; the summary of responses follows it.]
From: "Janis Bandelin" <Janis.Bandelin_at_furman.edu>
Colleagues,
For the past five months, I have been working with our Library Committee to
develop an allocation formula. For the past ten years, library allocations
to departments have been based on previous years' allocations and have not
taken into account the change in majors, number of classes taught, number
of faculty, etc. For the past three years, increases to our materials
budget have been spent on sustaining our journals and electronic resources.
Thus funds available for other materials (books and audio-visual) have been
stagnant. This system has rewarded those departments who are very journal
dependent (even with increases of 9-10%, all journals have been sustained)
and has penalized those disciplines that are more book dependent
(departments have received the same money for non-journal expenditures for
the past three years and have purchased fewer books). In my visits to our
academic departments last year, many departments expressed concern about
the fairness of the library allocations.
I am interested in hearing from those of you who have gone through this
reallocation process and have developed a formula or a system for providing
allocations to departments (or disciplines) which reflect more current
changes in the academic program. I am also interested in hearing from
those of you who are "in the thick of it" --- who, like me, are trying to
work through this very challenging and politically-charged process. If you
could include a brief description of your situation and your phone number,
I would be happy to call you.
If you can suggest articles or books that have been helpful to you in the
process, please pass that information on. ( ALA's Clip Note #22,
Allocation Formulas in Academic Libraries, has been very helpful.)
Thanks in advance for your help.
-Janis
Janis M. Bandelin, Ph.D. E-Mail: janis.bandelin_at_furman.edu
Director of Libraries Voice: 864-294-2191
Furman University Fax: 864-294-3004
3300 Poinsett Hwy
Greenville, SC 29613
===========================================================================
From: "Janis Bandelin" <Janis.Bandelin_at_furman.edu>
I wanted to thank everyone who responded to my query regarding the
materials reallocation process. Since several of you asked me to share the
responses, they are attached below (in somewhat abbreviated form).
It was interesting to learn that none of the respondents are using the
faculty research/productivity criterion in their formulas. (However, one
library is using a small portion of its discretionary fund to
support/reward faculty research.) This information helped to bolster my
case for dropping the faculty research/productivity criterion from our
allocation formula. Our Library Committee agreed. We are still very much
in the beginning stages of developing a formula, so it won't be implemented
until fall of 2000. Aside from having Library Committee members reach
consensus about the selection and weighting of criteria, the formula must
be carefully promoted and explained to ensure campus-wide
acceptance.
Below are the citations to books and articles that were suggested by
respondents:
Allocation Formulas in Academic Libraries, Clip Note #22. ACRL, ALA,1995.
"What Library Directors Want Collection Development Librarians to Know"
by Maureen Pastine in the April, 1998, Against The Grain.
The other comes under the "Library reorganization" heading, but is really
about the collection development process.Ý "Reorganizing Collection
Development and Acquisitions in a Medium-sized Academic Library" by Nancy
Courtney and Fred W. Jenkins in Library Acquisitions: Paractice and Theory
Vol. 22, No. 3, pp. 287-293.
Modeling an adacemic approval program, by John C. Calhoun, James K.
Bracken, & Kenneth L. Firestein. Library Resources & Technical Services,
volume 34, pages 367-379.
Richard Hume Werking & Charles M. Getchell: Using CH OICE as a mechanism
for allocating book funds in an academic library, College & research
libraries, volume 42 (March 1981), pages 135-138.
Richard Hume Werking, "Allocating the Academic Libary's Book Budget:
Historical Perspectives and Current Reflections," Journal of Academic
Librarianship,
vol. 14, no. 3, pp 140-144.
Received on Sat Apr 24 1999 - 14:26:11 EDT