For several years, SUNY Potsdam has been struggling to design a better budget allocation model for library collections. In the past, the formula we used for allocating funds seemed to be equitable, but in reality it was not the best approach. Our “New Budget Model” focuses on supporting the research projects assigned to students rather than what librarians and faculty think ought to be in a “good college library”. While the new model continues to be a work in progress, we have learned a lot about faculty perceptions and have had opportunities to share our ideas about the changing nature of academic library collections and services.

1. The Art of
Collections
Budgeting
SUNYLA 2015
Marianne Hebert
SUNY POTSDAM
http://www.slideshare.net/hebertm3308/sunyla2015

2. 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

3. 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)

4. Sample Monograph
Formula 2011-2012

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. What Sort of Worked
Librarian’s subjectivity scale
1. Given the databases we currently provide, is the program well served
(1=badly served, 5= very well served)
2. Your subjective impression of how much research is done by students in
the department (1=almost no research, 5 = tons of research)
3. Does this program rely on books? (1= doesn't need books at all, 5 =
incredibly book oriented)
4. Does this program rely on articles? (1= doesn't need articles at all, 5 =
incredibly article oriented)
5. Does this program rely on other types of resources? (1= doesn't need
many other resources at all, 5 = incredibly dependent on other resources)
6. 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)
7. Which (if any) resources that we pay for should stop providing?

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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.pd
f
(hint, skip to page 91 to get to the easy-to-read
storage costs estimates chart)

12. “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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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%)

16. The Message
 Students have changed
 Libraries have changed
 We can’t afford to buy books that don’t
get used

18. 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 1st two are required.
 Survey responses: http://tinyurl.com/p2yvlqk

19. A. What types of information resources are
needed for your students' research
assignment(s)?

20. 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”

21. 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?

22. Allowable
66%
NOT
Allowable
6%
I don't
care
16%
Blank
12%
Search engines
Allowable
26%
NOT
Allowable
52%
I don't
care
9%
Blank
13%
Free Web Encyclopedia
articles (e.g. Wikipedia)
Allowable
83%
NOT
Allowable
0%
I don't care
6% Blank
11%
Web based journal articles from
library databases
Allowable
80%
NOT
Allowable
2%
I don't
care
9%
Blank
9%
Open access journal
articles
Allowable
63%
NOT
Allowable
15%
I don't
care
8%
Blank
14%
Web based encyclopedia
articles from library databases
Allowable
54%NOT
Allowable
22%
I don't
care
9%
Blank
15%
Content from websites
What types of information sources are students allowed to
use to compete their assignments?

23. Allowable
61%
NOT
Allowable
5%
I don't
care
17%
Blank
17%
Streaming videos from
library databases
Allowable
51%NOT
Allowable
24%
I don't
care
8%
Blank
17%
Internet videos (e.g.
YouTube)
Allowable
52%NOT
Allowable
19%
I don't
care
12%
Blank
17%
Streaming audio from
the internet
Allowable
57%
NOT
Allowable
14%
I don't care
11%
Blank
18%
Streaming audio from library
databases
Allowable
75%
NOT
Allowable
5%
I don't
care
9%
Blank
11%
E-books

24. 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.

25. 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,…”

26. 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…”

27. Faculty Subjectivity Scale

29. 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 :-)”

30. 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

31. 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?”

32. 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.”

33. 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!”

34. Last Two Questions
 11. Are you willing to have your survey
comments shared with department and
campus colleagues?
 12. Your name (optional).

35. 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

36. 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

37. 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

38. 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?

39. 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

40. 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

41. Questions?
 Slideshare:
http://www.slideshare.net/hebertm3308/sunyla2015
Contact:
Marianne Hebert
hebertm@potsdam.edu
315 267-3308