CDL: Allocation formulas
From:
Steven Knowlton <steven_knowlton_at_hotmail.com>
I don't what works best, but we try to take into account both the number
of students in a discipline, the prices of materials in the discipline,
and their proven use of library materials. This year I hope to include
a weighting by the Percentage of Expected Use -- see William Aguilar,
The Application of Relative Use and Interlibrary Demand in Collection
Development, /Collection Management/8, no. 1 (1986): 15-24.
Allocation Formula for University of Memphis Libraries for FY 2013-2014
1.Determine the user base I chose the total number of undergrads,
plus number of grad students *1.2 + faculty*1.5 (grads check out books
at 1.2 times the rate of undergrads, and faculty do so at 1.5 times the
rate)
a.Figures are from Office of Institutional Research, reflecting last
years enrollment, by declared major (undeclared left out)
2.Figure out a departments percentage of total user base, and multiply
by total funds available
a.This is their raw share of budget
3.Then determine whether book prices in their field are above or below
the median of all book prices we pay
a.Combine Bowker price + average prices we paid last year for the
department, create average of the two
b.Compare that price against the median of all departments
4.Adjust raw share of the budget by variance from the median
a.for example, if department price is 5% above median, multiply their
raw share by 1.05
b.This is the first-pass allocation by formula
5.Then examine how many ILL requests the departments grad+faculty made,
and divide it by the number of grads+faculty
a.Compare that figure against the median of all departments
b.Determine the standard deviation from the median
c.If a departments ILL use is within one standard deviation, dont
adjust their figure
d.If a departments ILL use is above one standard deviation, multiply
the first-pass allocation by the number of standard deviations
i.Reasoning: if the allocations they had before were meeting their
needs, their ILL use would fall into the normal range; if they are
exceeding the normal range of use, then we need to add to their allocations
e.This is the second-pass allocation by formula
6.Divide each departments second-pass allocation by the total of
second-pass allocations; this gives an adjusted share of budget
7.Multiply each departments adjusted share by total funds available
a.This is the final allocation by formula
8.Numbers are adjusted per librarians judgment.
a.Departments whose share of the journals expenditure is beyond their
share of the user base receive downward adjustment in monographic allocation
b.Departments whose history shows that make few requests are also
adjusted downward from formula
c.Departments whose students cannot easily utilize materials purchased
by other departments (e.g., Music, Theater & Dance) receive an upward
adjustment because they cannot take advantage of interdisciplinarity
This seems like an immensely complicated formula, but once set up in
Excel, it can be populated with data in a couple hours.
- Steve Knowlton
Received on Wed Mar 18 2015 - 09:06:53 EDT