The Art of Collections Budgeting
SUNYLA 2015
Marianne Hebert
SUNY POTSDAM http://www.slideshare.net/hebertm3308/sunyla2015
The Art of
Collections
Budgeting
Formula Based Budget SORT OF
Budget Allocation from Library Director
(a piece of the OTPS library budget pie)
Database renewals - 1st
Not formula based
Periodical renewals - 2nd
Not formula based
Monographs get remainder - 3rd
Ridiculously complex formula
PAST Monographic Formulas
Student FTE
Weighted credit hours (grad/undergrad)
Average circulation by FTE
Circulation percentages by budget code
Industry book prices
Average cost per item (ALEPH)
Sample Monograph
Formula 2011-2012
Our Budget Process Didn’t Work
Arbitrary (historical) allocations for databases & periodicals, and a strict formula for monographs wasn’t “equitable” or “fair” across material types
Our guts told us the mono formula wasn’t what was needed: “Well, er, um, I think…”
Equitable distribution of funds ≠ what resources are needed or how they are actually used
Sciences vs. Humanities (Journals vs. Books)
Allocations ≠ Expenditures
Goal was to SPEND the money by end of FY not necessarily to BUILD collections wisely
Gathering formula data was very time consuming
Tweaking the Formula
What We Tried but Failed
Design a formula for Databases & Periodicals
Database allocations by discipline?
Which databases are subject specific vs. interdisciplinary?
What % of Interdisciplinary databases are Anthropology,
Art, Biology, etc.?
Project Muse
Academic Source Complete
SUNYConnect, NOVEL and NY3Rs
Periodical allocations by discipline
Not all disciplines rely on periodicals
More Failures
Information Literacy classes taught
Not all departments and classes use or need IL
LibGuide Subject page hits
Not a good measure considering other discovery options (webopac and web links)
% ILL borrowing requests by discipline
Self declared major ≠ subject of requests
Undeclared majors
What Sort of Worked
Librarian’s subjectivity scale
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Given the databases we currently provide, is the program well served
(1=badly served, 5= very well served)
Your subjective impression of how much research is done by students in the department (1=almost no research, 5 = tons of research)
Does this program rely on books? (1= doesn't need books at all, 5 = incredibly book oriented)
Does this program rely on articles? (1= doesn't need articles at all, 5 = incredibly article oriented)
Does this program rely on other types of resources? (1= doesn't need many other resources at all, 5 = incredibly dependent on other resources)
Ideally, what other resources should be provided to this department and what priority would you assign to each one? (1= low priority, 2= it would be a nice addition, 3 = we should get this if we can afford it, 4 = pretty darn important, 5 = we are total losers for not supplying this already)
Which (if any) resources that we pay for should stop providing?
Library Landscape:
Things are Changing
The Library is not the only game in town
Students only use library resources when directed to by faculty and their research assignments
REQUIRE use of library resources
Students need “something” but not usually a specific thing
Discovery and Metadata are improving
Resources Sharing is better
Budgets are shrinking
E-resources & periodical costs increase annually
What We Know
~40-50 % of the books we buy NEVER circulate
Circulation of academic print books has been declining for years
Books have shelf lives:
Older books get used less
Older books appear lower on the results lists
Content gets stale for many discipline
How much does it cost to keep a book on the shelf?
$4.26 annually
"On the Cost of Keeping a Book" by Paul N. Courant and Matthew Nielsen (2009) http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub147/pub147.pdf
(hint, skip to page 91 to get to the easy-to-read storage costs estimates chart)
“New Budget Model”
Rather than building a collection of
GOOD STUFF that doesn’t get used, we now focus on what is ACTUALLY NEEDED for assignments
Not about budget allocations - More about purposeful collection building
Jan 2014: Library Luncheon for
Faculty Liaisons Discussions
Less prescriptive budgets across content types
Connect learning objectives to collection building
Focus on purchasing “essential” vs.
“valuable or wanted” materials
Consider how ILL and Doc Delivery systems fit in with user’s needs
Pilot projects with Four
Departments (Spring 2014)
Biology, Theatre/Dance, Geology & History
Developed survey for teaching Faculty (23 responses)
Librarian teams met with departments to discuss the “new model” & survey results
Librarian’s debrief meetings
Fall 2014 – Spring 2015
IRB approval to run survey campus-wide
Tweaked the survey and sent to faculty
92 faculty responses (out of ~350)
LibGuide about the “New Budget Model” http://potsdam.libguides.com/budget
Met with eight departments to discuss the survey responses and the “New Budget
Model”
Total of 12 departments done (~50%)
The Message
Students have changed
Libraries have changed
We can’t afford to buy books that don’t get used
The Survey – Google form
http://tinyurl.com/qzlfqpr
Note that this is a copy of the original for SUNYLA attendees. Feel free to answer questions to page through it…the 1 st two are required.
Survey responses: http://tinyurl.com/p2yvlqk
A. What types of information resources are needed for your students' research assignment(s)?
B. What search tools (library databases or free web) do you expect students to use to find these resources?
“Those data bases specifically citing research in culture, language, education (e.g. Anthro source, ERIC)”
“BearCAT, WorldCat, Ebsco, JSTOR”
“Academic Search whatever”
“All of them! But especially AskMax & PsycInfo”
“Web of Science”
C. Students often tell us that they aren't allowed to use "the web" to complete their assignments.
If you give assignments where you don't want students to use web resources (i.e. the free web), is it allowable for students to use library resources that are web-based?
What types of information sources are students allowed to use to compete their assignments?
Search engines
Web based encyclopedia articles from library databases
Free Web Encyclopedia articles (e.g. Wikipedia)
Blank
12%
NOT
Allowable
6%
I don't care
16%
Allowable
66%
I don't care
8%
NOT
Allowable
15%
Blank
14%
Allowable
63%
I don't care
9%
Blank
13%
Allowable
26%
NOT
Allowable
52%
I don't care
9%
Content from websites
Blank
15%
Web based journal articles from library databases
I don't care
6%
NOT
Allowable
0%
Blank
11%
I don't care
Allowable
2%
Open access journal articles
Blank
9%
NOT
Allowable
22%
Allowable
54%
Allowable
83%
Allowable
80%
I don't care
9%
NOT
Allowable
5%
E-books Streaming videos from library databases
Blank
11%
Allowable
75%
NOT
Allowable
5%
Streaming audio from the internet
I don't care
17%
Blank
17%
Allowable
61%
I don't care
8%
Internet videos (e.g. databases
YouTube)
Blank
17%
NOT
Allowable
24%
Streaming audio from library
Allowable
51%
I don't care
12%
Blank
17%
NOT
Allowable
19%
Allowable
52%
I don't care
11%
Blank
18%
Allowable
57%
NOT
Allowable
14%
D. When selecting materials for the College
Libraries, we try to make sure our collections have enough depth and currency to support the research interests of our students. What should the library keep in mind when building our collections? e.g. topics, authors, publishers, series. Please be as specific as possible.
Topics, Authors, etc. RESPONSES
“Topics: genetics, molecular genetics, genetic diseases, virology, viral infections, viral outbreaks, emerging infectious diseases”
“For my purposes the library should have databases that offer extensive access to peer reviewed, primary literature in life sciences.”
“Daily life in ancient cities (Rome, Greece and
Pompeii)”
“Access to current dance in video is important…”
“Up-to-date Women's Health Issues”
“Build a collection on Hispanics in the USA, all books and collections by Junot Diaz, Sandra Cisneros,
Martin Espada, Cherie Moraga,…”
E. Would you like to partner with library faculty to try a new assignment? What would you like to try? What types of resources would you need for your experimental assignment?
“Yes. Annotated bibliography.”
“Our greatest difficulty in Arabic Studies, the capstone course in Arabic Across the
Curriculum is finding materials in Arabic on a great variety of topics/discipline…”
“I'm unfamiliar with materials in the college archives, but would like to learn more about them for possible integration into different courses…”
Faculty Subjectivity Scale
6. If the research assignments for your programs are dependent on other types of information resources, please list them in the box below:
“Exhibition catalogues”
“Correspondence and other primary sources”
“Datasets related to politics (some publicly available, others only through ICPSR).”
“Take over their brains with software that gets them to WANT to learn :-)”
7. Ideally, what other resources should the College Libraries provide to support student research in your department?
“Aluka”
“Ideally? Readex Early American Imprints online and Early English Books online -- you said "ideally" so I thought I would dream big.”
Pie-in-the-sky would be for more of your online journals to not have a one-year embargo
8. Which (if any) resources should we stop providing?
“Thin out the oldest books. In genetics-related fields, older often implies out-dated and potentially incorrect information.”
“Popular books”
“Annual reviews if any of these are still being bought”
“Print journals - my students and myself work in digital.”
“Trick question?”
9. What resource(s) are untouchable for your department's programs?
“The OED. MLA db.”
“Project muse, monologue collections, new plays, video of performances.”
“I am not clear on what you mean by
"untouchable". Presuming this means "should not be taken away" I would say journal subscriptions.”
“I do not know what you mean by
"untouchable." Older, outdated editions of works, I suppose, should not be touched.”
10. Do you have any comments about library collections and resources you would like to add? or any questions about library collections you'd like to ask?
“Illiad has been wonderful. My most recent request was fulfilled in about a day. Thanks!”
“I have a list of about 20 environmental documentaries that I wish the library had.”
“How do you establish the value of particular resources beyond simple search counts? How will you make sure to meet the needs of smaller departments?”
“I am unclear on the library's mission in terms of teaching. I would like to better understand this in terms of the library's ability to purchase items used in the classroom (such as videos), but not necessarily by students outside of class time.”
“The (subscription) rent is too damn high!”
Last Two Questions
11. Are you willing to have your survey comments shared with department and campus colleagues?
12. Your name (optional).
Department Meetings
Offer private meetings
Changing library landscape
Survey discussion and feedback
Would you be willing to participate in an assignment repository?
Communication: Is the Liaison system is an effective method of communication?
Moving forward: Increased dialogue about student research needs and library purchases
What We Learned…
Lots of confusion about Interlibrary Loan
What it costs or doesn’t cost
Who can use it
Why it takes so long
Lots of confusion about “fair use”, e.g. uploading copies of articles into Moodle
(even if it is legal Library doesn’t see database use counts)
Questions about e-books, how to download, why they disappear.
Lots of confusion about SUNY Rule-of-3
What We Learned
Many faculty don’t read or understand our collection development policies
Some faculty don’t like librarians challenging their purchase recommendations (SUNY Rule of 3, book selections, periodical and database purchases and cuts)
Faculty asked for more transparency (library use database statistics, and budgets)
Most faculty are willing to share their research assignments
It is extremely difficult to schedule meetings with departments
Some departments allocated 15 minutes. Other meetings took 1+ hours.
The Survey was awkward to compile and to share results
Practical Matters
ALEPH Budgets
Circ-stats-by-budget (p-manage-70)
WebOPAC search strings (custom-62)
ILLiad – Most requested Loans
Follow the metadata
What LCSH are assigned to book requests?
Do other books with those SH circulate?
Moving Forward
Message to all departmental liaisons:
“All spending should based on our new collections model, which is focused on assignments and projects done by students as a part of their coursework. Please focus any requests accordingly.”
“What is a Library?” conversations to continue for years
References
Kurt, Will. The End of Academic Library Circulation? ACRL
TechConnect Blog Feb. 1, 2012 http://acrl.ala.org/techconnect/?p=233
Stewart C. METRICS: The Next Chapter: Measuring the Pace of
Change for Print Monograph Collections. Journal Of Academic
Librarianship [serial online]. July 2011;37(4):355-357 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0099133311
001121
Head, Alison. Project Information Literacy: What Can Be
Learned about the Information-Seeking Behavior of Today’s
College Students? ACRL 2013 Proceedings http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/confer ences/confsandpreconfs/2013/papers/Head_Project.pdf
Questions?
Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/hebertm3308/sunyla2015
Contact:
Marianne Hebert hebertm@potsdam.edu
315 267-3308
