Budget allocation formulas?
From: Christy Wrenn <cwrenn_at_centenary.edu>
Hi Dennis Gibbons,
You certainly have a monumental task before you. Our Learning Resources Committee spent a
year or maybe two on redoing the materials allocation formula for the library several
years ago. I was not Director at the time and not on the committee. We were blessed to
have a the head of the Math Department on the committee which seemed to make a difference;
however he declares he will never be on the committee again! HA!!!
The formula only includes books and all other media, excluding serials.
The following is used in our formula:
1. Four Departmental Data Sets are used: FTE Faculty, Total Library Circulation, minus
Strict Reserve and ILL, Total Credit Hours in all classes, and Total Students Attending
Classes.
2. Weight is Given to Data: Each unit of Data is given equal weight of 25% of a 100% whole.
3. Data Changes: 20 Points is added to the calculated result, and a CAP is set at 90.
4. Rounding: The dollar amount of the allocation is rounded to the nearest 5 or 10--to
the discretion of the librarian.
5. If there any cuts to be made to the materials budget in a given year, I have found
that it is best to make the percentage cut and them attempt to fit the allocations to the
total after the cut had been made.
I have an EXCEL spreadsheet set up for this and just plug in the data sets each year.
I hope that this will help.
--
Christy J. Wrenn -|-
Director of Library Services
Centenary College of Louisiana
Magale Library
2911 Centenary Blvd., PO Box 41188
Shreveport, Louisiana 71104-1188
318-869-5057
Received on Sat Feb 27 2010 - 03:10:42 EST