Budget Exercise: Special Collections, Tutt Library, Colorado College
Budget Exercise: Special Collections, Tutt Library, Colorado College
Christine Dyar
8/1/10
INFO 640
Professor Catherine Collins
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Budget Exercise: Special Collections, Tutt Library, Colorado College
Table of Contents
Introduction…………………………………………………………………………..3
Program Budget……………………………………………………………...............4
New Service………………………………………………………………….
Salary Increases……………………………………………………………...
Appendix……………………………………………………………………..
References……………………………………………………………………
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Budget Exercise: Special Collections, Tutt Library, Colorado College
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Introduction
Tutt Library is located at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Colorado College was founded
in 1874, two years before Colorado became a state. CC was founded as a coeducational liberal arts college and
maintains that focus today, with over 80 majors and minors available to students, along with special programs such
as Southwest studies and Asian studies. CC consistently places very high in rankings of liberal arts colleges, and
also has a high student retention rate of 96%. The college is a unique school with approximately 2,000 students, who
participate in a block plan education. CC provides a unique college experience by utilizing the block plan. Students
take eight three and one half week classes per year, one class at a time. This allows our students to concentrate on
one subject at a time, and become immersed in that topic. Tutt Library was completed in 1962, and remains the core
of all CC academic life. Our mission is to provide bibliographic, intellectual, and physical access to knowledge and
information, to support the educational aims of Colorado College, and to promote continued independent learning.
(http://www.coloradocollege.edu).
Tutt Library’s Special Collections Department provides not only the students and faculty of Colorado
College with valuable resources, but scholars from around the United States visit the library to access Special
Collections’ Manuscript Collection, Rare Book Collection, Colorado Archives, and the Helen Hunt Jackson papers.
In order to better serve the students and faculty of Colorado College, and also our visiting scholars who utilize these
resources, the Special Collections department has been asked to provide an updated program budget that will
incorporate the department’s current programs that support Tutt Library’s mission, along with implementation of a
new service for patrons, and finally, an increase in salary for the current Special Collections staff commensurate
with the additional work that will be created by the new service implementation.
Program Budget
The goal of Tutt Library, as stated above, encompasses access to information, support of the educational aims of
Colorado College, and promotion of independent learning. In alignment with these worthy goals, the Special
Collections Department has established four goals of our own to serve our patrons:
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Meet the research needs of the students and faculty at Colorado College by providing access to and
assistance with utilization of Special Collections.
Meet the research needs of the scholarly community who utilizes the Special Collections by providing
access to and assistance with utilization of Special Collections.
Provide timely and efficient responses to research inquiries via email, phone and in person inquiries.
Update Special Collections materials as determined by student, faculty, and scholarly recommendations,
and funding.
The Special Collections Department provides several services and programs to support these goals. They are as
follows:
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Program #1- Consultation with Librarian/Para-professional and acquisition of materials.
Program #2- Access to Special Collection documents at Tutt Library.
Program #3-Weekly email update on Special Collections Department and list of patron FAQ.
Program #4- Access to databases, including TIGER catalog (Tutt Library catalog system) and subscription
databases.
This program budget will show costs associated with achieving our goals and also help us to monitor our future
progress towards goals. (Zach, p. 19). Our current budget provides for subscriptions and books, supplies, phone,
fax and postage, staff travel, salaries for our Librarian, Para-professional and clerk, and fringe benefits and
organizational overhead. The Special Collections Departments operating budget of $355,122 is currently divided
among the above programs, as demonstrated by the table in Appendix A. (p. ). All monies are shown by
percentage and dollar amount.
Justification of our Program Budget encompasses the following key points:
Program #1 involves a large amount of both the Librarian and Para-professional’s time commitment. To
this end a larger portion of the salary budget goes towards this program: 35%. Consultation with either the
Budget Exercise: Special Collections, Tutt Library, Colorado College
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Librarian or the Para-professional are intrinsic to fulfilling Tutt Library’s goal of meeting the research needs of
students, faculty and visiting scholars. These professional consultations assist patrons with focusing and refining
their research, and also allow for development of skills that patrons can use independently to further their education
and knowledge. The staff travel budget is also allocated more heavily in Program #1 than in other programs: 75%.
Our staff Librarian and Para-professional attend several local profession-specific events each year, as well as
presenting elements of our Special Collection, such as the Helen Hunt Jackson papers, to various local historical and
library groups, again allowing them to effectively assist patrons.
Program #2 involves a lesser time distribution on the part of the Librarian and Para-professional, with our
full time Clerk stepping in to assist patrons who visit Special Collections and want to browse the collection or look
at a specific item. Our Clerk also answers basic email, phone and mail inquiries.
Program #3 provides our patrons with weekly email updates on our collection, and provides links to items
of interest regarding rare books, Colorado History, the Helen Hunt Jackson papers, and any other applicable
information. Additionally, a list of FAQ with accompanying answers is maintained and displayed on the Special
Collections website. Our Librarian and Para-professional have most of the responsibility for content and links for
the weekly email update, while our Clerk compiles the items into the weekly update, and also maintains and updates
the distribution list. Our Clerk also updates the FAQ list and makes sure it is posted on the website.
Program #4 provides our patrons with access to seven online information services. 45% of our subscription
and book budget goes to our online subscriptions, to allow our patrons to access information of value regarding
manuscripts, rare books, and Colorado history.
The remaining 55% of our subscription and book budget is allocated to Program #1. Librarian and Paraprofessional consultations result in valuable information from patrons as to what sorts of materials they need and
would like to see in our collection. The Librarian approves and purchases all materials for the Special Collections
department.
Phone, fax, and postage are allocated equally across all four Programs, as are supplies, fringe benefits and
overhead. As stated previously, 75% of the staff travel budget is allocated to Program #1. The rest of staff travel
budget is allocated equally across all four programs.
New Service
The Special Collections Department is excited to propose a new service for our patrons. It will entail
transcribing and placing all of our manuscripts, including the Helen Hunt Jackson papers, online. This new service
will support Program #2, and help the Special Collections Department continue to achieve our goals of meeting the
research needs of our patrons, providing timely responses to requests for information from our patrons, and keeping
our Collection updated.
Transcribing and digitizing our manuscripts will require the acquisition of four new PCs with monitors and
required peripheral devices will be purchased for the transcriptionists to use. CC has a contract with Dell, and will
purchase the items per that contract. After initial transcription is complete, the PCs and related items will be utilized
in the Special Collections Department. For the initial transcription process, three student transcriptionist resources
will need to be hired to complete the work. This phase will take approximately six weeks to complete. The project
will of course be ongoing, as manuscript acquisition itself is ongoing within the Special Collections Department.
Transcription of the following will occur: manuscripts, articles, diaries, letters, travel columns, business
correspondence, legal documents, land transactions, wills, and any other non-printed materials. All transcribed
materials will be updated on the Tutt Library Special Collections website, so that scholars and researchers can
access the materials online. Success will also be evaluated by usage of the documents.
The Special Collections webpage will be setup to determine how many times a document is accessed, and
the Special Collections staff will begin tallying the usage of the documents in person. The Special Collections staff
expects to see an increase of 5% in usage of the documents online in the first year after preservation. Additionally,
the staff expects to see an increase of 15% in use of the physical documents by faculty and staff at Colorado College
in classes that provide experience to the student in any of the following areas: Southwest Studies, manuscript
studies, and Native American Studies and archive studies. The use of the Helen Hunt Jackson Papers is also
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important to the Colorado College First Year Experience, which shows students the wide variety of materials
available in Tutt Library, and shows the students how to access and use those resources properly.
A preliminary cost benefit analysis of the transcription and digitizing service shows the direct and indirect
benefits of the service. (Elliott, et al, p. 11).