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Developing a weighted collection development allocation formula
The document discusses the process used by Arkansas State University library to develop a formula for allocating funds across departments. In 1997, the library had no equitable means of allocation and one department received nearly 20% of funds. The library researched allocation formulas, chose one from Colorado State University, and selected factors like credit hours, classes offered, degrees awarded, and faculty to include. They determined data availability, assigned weights to factors based on priorities, ran test formulas, and have since adjusted the formula as needed. The formula allows separate allocation of books, journals, print and online resources to better suit the library's needs.
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Developing a weighted collection development allocation formula
- 1. Jeff Bailey, LibraryDirector Linda Creibaum, Acquisitions and Serials Librarian Dean B. Ellis Library Arkansas State University November 6, 2014 Copyright Jeff Bailey and Linda Creibaum, 2014
- 2. • Questions arewelcome at any time, but we may defer answering a question until later in the session • Interactive discussions are welcome
- 3. •In 1997 theArkansas State University library had no equitable means of making allocations •Funds had not been reallocated/redistributed in many years •One department accounted for nearly 20% of all collection development expenditures •There was no funding to support new programs
- 4. •We searched literatureto discover methods of making allocations, including the use of a formula •We chose to use a formula based on one used by Colorado State University and described in SPEC Kit #36
- 5. Do these stepsbefore selecting formula factors
- 6. •Doing this ismuch like a brainstorming session • Cost of materials • Degrees awarded per department or program • Faculty per department or program • Number of course sections offered • Number of courses in catalog • Number of degree programs • Number of majors in each program • Semester credit hour production (actual enrollment) • Use of materials
- 7. •Evaluate and refinethe list • Eliminate duplicates and non-viable suggestions • Identify the factors that are most relevant to your campus
- 8. •What we used • Cost of materials (from the Library and Book Trade Almanac) • Degrees awarded per department or program • Faculty per department or program (FTE faculty) • Number of course sections offered • Number of courses in catalog • Number of degree programs • Number of majors in each program • Semester credit hour production (actual enrollment) • Use of materials
- 9. •Determine what datais available or could be gathered • Both internal (within your library and within the field) and external (campus, community, company, etc.) • Eliminate possible factors for which data cannot be obtained •Gather samples of available data
- 10. •The original factorswe used • Semester credit hour production (actual enrollment) • Number of classes offered • Degrees awarded • Faculty per department • Cost of materials from Library and Book Trade Almanac •Other factors that could have been used • Number of degree programs • Departmental external funding and/or research productivity • Use of materials • Number of courses in catalog
- 11. •Weights • Weightingis the assigning of values to indicate the importance or impact of each factor in the formula relative to the other formula factors • The assigned weight values are inserted into the Excel spreadsheet and are used in formula calculations
- 12. •Assigning weights toeach factor • These should be based upon each institution’s priorities and culture • Library Committee • Faculty Senate • Institutional Administration • Something else? • We subdivided some factors before assigning weights • Do test runs and adjust weights if needed
- 13. How the FormulaWorks (by non-mathematicians)
- 14. Screen Shot ofa Previous Formula Run
- 15. •You can doseparate formula runs for… • Books • Journals • Print • Online resources (databases/ejournals/eBooks) • Any other budgets your library may have • Or any combination of these •We chose to run a single formula for all allocations
- 16. •Before running theformula, determine how much of your budget to allocate and how much to keep back for library use (if any) •You may want or need to make adjustments to individual allocations after running the formula • Do no harm • Nonparticipation • Special entities or protected programs
- 17. •Your formula willprobably need to be modified at some point in the future •We have changed our formula • Weights were adjusted • Added departmental external funding as a factor in 2012
- 18. •Document, document, document! •Make the decisions and modify the formula to fit your library’s needs •Feel free to contact either of us with any questions you may think of later
- 19. To download aninteractive copy of the demo spreadsheet www.astate.edu/a/library/charleston
- 20. Jeff Bailey LibraryDirector Dean B. Ellis Library Arkansas State University Jonesboro P.O. Box 2040 State University, AR 72467 870-972-2724 jbailey@astate.edu Linda Creibaum Acquisitions and Serials Librarian Dean B. Ellis Library Arkansas State University Jonesboro P.O. Box 2040 State University, AR 72467 870-972-3354 lcreibaum@astate.edu