Summary of responses for Inflationary Increases query
From:
"Lee, Carla (cl9eb)" <cl9eb_at_eservices.virginia.edu>
Hi everyone,
Here is the follow-up summary to my query about inflationary increases.
Thanks again to everyone who responded.
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Original Post
Hi all,
We are looking at a new budget model here at the University of Virginia
and I have a couple of questions for the group as we rework how we
request collections funding;
1) Do you have an agreement with your administration that you will
"automatically" receive an increase to cover your journal inflation? Or
are you negotiating on a year-to-year basis?
2) If you do have a standing agreement, how are you calculating that
inflationary increase?
Please respond to me off list and I will summarize the responses, if
there is interest.
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Hi -- we do not have such an agreement with university administration,
but instead craft a new budget request each year which may have
inflationary and programmatic elements.
You may find that some schools receive standard inflationary increase
for materials in general, including monographs and databases.
I will be interested to learn what you hear, esp. about the calculation
of inflation. Where I am, I would say there's Admin recognition that
prices naturally rise, as well as resistance to the rate at which they
climb, for many publishers.
As an aside, I generally say something in budget requests about exchange
rate fluctuations. It used to be the case that we avoided that, given
the inevitable ups and downs. But in some areas changes in the Euro and
Yen, and sometimes other currencies, would force reduction in
acquisitions without help via new dollars or reallocation. This is not
really "inflation," but another type of lost buying power. I think I
have been fair about this, i.e. where the dollar gains in some
substantial way, I have reduced the new dollars we need to face higher
prices. I think that many libraries do not quantify this, but simply
invoke it as another pressure on the budget.
Another type of "inflation" has been in new title output (or even new
digital resources of value), but any invocation of this problem has to
do with assumptions about providing campus access to a reasonably stable
portion of academic output. Growth in journal prices, at least for some
publishers, in part reflects growth in supply (more articles in a given
title), and not just cost/article.
Bryan Skib
Associate University Librarian for Collections
University of Michigan
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We are in a somewhat similar situation. Please do summarize to the list.
Mary Ann
Mary Ann Robinson
Sacramento City College Library
3835 Freeport Blvd.
Sacramento, CA 95822
916-558-2377
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We have negotiated ongoing inflationary increases with upper
administration based on the price caps stipulated in our big deal
agreements. For those agreements, we receive the real cap. For other
serials, the increase is based on the cap negotiated with Elsevier. That
cap is much lower than average inflation, however, so may not ultimately
fully cover costs.
Please do not disclose our institution's name at this time.
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We do not have an explicit agreement, but rather a tradition that has
now lasted a decade or more of the University providing 5% annual
increases to the acquisitions budget. The practice emerged after years
of providing inflationary estimates (based on our local experience, LJ
April 15^th data and vendor information), and the central administration
usually acknowledges that actual inflation is higher---which is often,
though not always, true. I doubt this helps, but FWIW.
Edward Shreeves
Associate University Librarian for
Collections and Scholarly Communication
University of Iowa Libraries
Iowa City, IA 52242
Phone: 319-335-5873 Fax: 319-335-5900
Email: edward-shreeves_at_uiowa.edu
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I'd be interested in the responses you get and your new model, if
there are any responses. At Catholic University of America, as in many
institutions, there is no such agreement to increase the acquisitions
budget each year. In fact, this year we received an increase for the
first time in many years. We push for an increase each year with our
best arguments (which is why I'm interested in other models) but we are
a modestly endowed institution and this hasn't been a priority.
Nonetheless, because of a few "big deals" we've made (which are
unsustainable in the long run but useful now) and journal access via
JSTOR and other major databases, access to journals has actually
increased over the last decade. But this cannot last.
Mary Agnes Thompson
Coordinator of Collection Development
The Catholic University of America
620 Michigan Avenue NE
Washington DC 20064
thompsom_at_cua.edu
202 319-6421
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We have negotiated with our administration to have non-standard
periodical inflation costs be a "fixed cost" budget item, similar to how
higher fuel costs are budgeted for. We have used the recent rate of 8%
(working from the information presented in LJ, mid-April issue).
I'd like to see your results, if possible.
Lynn
Lynn N. Baird, Dean of Library Services
University of Idaho Library
PO Box 442350
Moscow, ID 83844-2350
lbaird_at_uidaho.edu
(208) 885-6534
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I wish! Our collections budget was cut 25% last year, though we are
getting some of that back this year. I have only ever been at one
place that did have this sort of deal - the University of Toronto.
This is my alumni email - I am now at the City University of New York,
Brooklyn College.
Stephanie Walker
stephanie.walker_at_utoronto.ca <mailto:stephanie.walker_at_utoronto.ca>
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Carla,
At Duke University Libraries we request an inflation to cover our
journal inflation every year. We submit a formal report to the
university's Executive Vice Provost for Finance and Administration.
This report details the predicted inflation of journals and monographs
and we request a specific inflation amount for all major collection
lines including: Subscriptions, Monographs, Binding, Exchange items,
Standing Orders and Special Collections.
We do not have a standing agreement, but we do utilize the following
sources to calculate our inflationary increase request: Library Journal
Periodicals Price Survey, YBP Annual Book Price Update, Ebsco Serials
Price Projections, Data provided from Harrassowitz regarding the
European market and information about the exchange rate of the US dollar
versus the Euro, British Pound and the Japanese Yen.
**
I am interested in reading of summary of the responses you receive.
Best,
Aisha Harvey
Head, Collection Development
Perkins Library, Duke University
(W) 1-919-660-7892
Address: http://library.duke.edu/about/depts/colldev/
**
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Year to year inflation increases but we have had them.
Patricia (Pat) Smith
Coordinator, Collections and Contracts
Colorado State University Libraries
Ft. Collins, CO 80523
Phone: 970-491-1856
Fax: 970-491-4611
Carla H. Lee
Director, Science, Engineering & Education Services
Charles L. Brown Science & Engineering Library
University of Virginia
Email: carlalee_at_virginia.edu <mailto:carlalee_at_virginia.edu>
Tel: 434-243-2390
Received on Mon May 21 2012 - 10:28:59 EDT