CDL: Percentage of Research Overhead Receipts (responses)
From: John Abbott <abbottjp_at_appstate.edu>
First, Thanks to all who replied.
This is a quick summary of the responses to my
question about which academic libraries receive a portion of their
university's Research Overhead, aka indirect costs, external funding
rates, F&A costs from grant funding, etc., to support the
Library.
Most people responded directly to me, implying to me that
they prefer to be identified in general terms. I
have honored that in the summary.
Almost all of the libraries responding were ARL libraries. Since
this is a self-selected sample it is hard to know if
comprehensive universities (Carnegie Masters I & II) or the
non-ARL Doctoral univ's routinely receive or wish for this funding.
Considering the implications of all responses, it appears that only
a few receive a portion of the research overhead. Those libraries
receiving a part of the overhead receipts vary widely in the amount
received.
Here are the comments (the ARL ranking is the 2003 ARL Index
rank http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/arlbin/arl.cgi )
===
We receive a percentage of money from our University's Division of
Sponsored Research. I'm afraid I don't know what the percentage is. I
do know that this year we are supposed to receive $1 million.
-an public ARL in the top 1/3 of ARL rankings
I tried to make this happen... but without
any success. I think that the library provides between 1-2% of our
overall rate of 49% [overhead charged by the univ.].
-an public ARL at about 50th percentile of the ARL rankings.
...we receive 7% of the overhead. That
amounts to about 1.3 million, which is more than one-fifth of our
materials budget.
-an public ARL in the bottom 25% of ARL rankings
Here at ... I've been angling for it for years, without
success.
-a private Carnegie Doctorate/Research Universities—Extensive.
...the Greater Western Library Alliance [had] the same question. And
the answers were generally "no". There is one library in the Northwest
that has been getting 7%! and [one in the Southwest] has been getting
5%. [My university in the middle of the ARL rankings] gets a
token--maybe .005 percent at the most. Several can get some special
funding if they put in a proposal. It is something lots of us would
like--but at least the mid- and south-west, it's not the norm.
-Also from the GWLA investigation. GWLA has 30 members
( http://www.gwla.org/library.htm ):
...only 4 libraries reported receiving such money currently. Of
those, one library gets a fixed amount. Three get percents that range
from 1.5% to 7%. Two other libraries report receiving some funds
occasionally as a result of special requests. The
other 11 are not currently receiving this type of funding. Some have
received it in the past; others are working on getting it. Most are
told that overhead funds received by the university contribute to the
support of the library, but the money is part of the basic budget.
-reported by an ARL at about the 50th percentile in the ARL rankings
---
By research overhead receipts, I assume that you're referring to the
facilities and administrative costs rate negotiated by the university
for external grants.
Our Faculty Senate committee recently compiled data from websites of
state universities in Ohio and found that the F&A Cost Rate varies
widely. Only one institution, Ohio State Univ., allocates a percentage
of the F&A receipts to the libraries. OSU Libraries receive 1.2%. I
do not know if this is a fixed percentage or if it varies from year to
year.
The university websites surveyed included:
Bowling Green State Univ.
Central State Univ.
Cleveland State Univ.
Kent State Univ
Medical College of Ohio
Miami Univ.
Ohio State Univ
Ohio Univ.
Univ. of Akron
Univ. of Cincinnati
Univ. of Toledo
Wright State Univ.
Youngstown State Univ.
-reported by a non-ARL Doctoral I univ.
We usually received a flat $10-15k from the Dean of the
Graduate School and Research. This is probably 0.5% of
the overhead reciepts.
-reported by a comprehensive university.
...we don't get a fixed percentage but
rather a fixed sum (about $900,000/year). This used to go to
collections, but was swapped out and goes to Operations now,
our thinking being that at least the state money in
collections will get some increase (if ever we get an
increase!)
-an ARL in the top 10% of the ARL ranking
Our past overhead receipts rate has been between 3-4%. We don't yet
know the precise percentage for this year.
-an ARL in the top 1/3 the of ARL ranking.
==============
John
--
John P. Abbott, MS MSLS
Coordinator, Collection Development
University Library
Appalachian State University
325 University Drive
Boone, NC 28608
828-262-2821
828-262-3001 (fax)
abbottjp_at_appstate.edu
Received on Sat Aug 28 2004 - 01:57:48 EDT