2013 Charleston Conference

The literature and discussion regarding library budgets usually focusses on methods and formulas for allocating funds among the different subject areas. However, little attention is being paid to the structure of the funds within those subject areas. This presentation will introduce new concepts and a new way of thinking about the Library budget as more than just a way of spending funds, but also as a tool for planning and reporting, for both management and selectors.

Many academic libraries still have the very general and all-embracing “electronic resources” fund. Having one big pot of money to pay for both one time purchases and ongoing subscriptions to all types of electronic resources certainly provides some flexibility in spending, but is not helpful for planning or statistics reporting. Moreover, paying for one-time e-book purchases in the same fund as constantly rising e-journal subscriptions is misleading and may contribute to the (actual or perceived) drain of funds away from monographs.

The Claremont Colleges Library’s budget is based on broader disciplines, rather than on subjects. This enables the Library to maintain a fund structure that addresses the three critical aspects of library expenditures in an e-resource dominated world: material type (books, journals, non-journal databases, and media), material format (print/physical or electronic), and order type - an aspect reflecting the nature of the spending – ongoing vs. one-time purchases vs. approval plan autoship vs. standing orders.

The advantages of the new budget structure are numerous: from more accurate tracking of increases in ongoing expenses and facilitating annual reporting for associations’ statistics to better control over budget expenditure throughout the year and helping collections librarians focus on planning for spending the funds that need librarian intervention while just monitoring funds “that spend themselves” - subscriptions, autoship, or standing orders.