Budget
Allocations of funds for the purchase of monographic library material by the departments/colleges are proposed by the Associate Dean but must be approved by the Dean of Libraries and the Provost.
For budgetary purposes the library allocates funds to departments of the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Communication and Fine Arts, the College of Education, the Fogelman College of Business and Economics, the Herff College of Engineering, and independent academic units which operate under the purview of the Provost such as the University College. The following steps are observed in the budgeting process:
- The total amount available for the purchase of library material is divided into five categories, with the continuing obligations receiving first priority (generally speaking the previous year's budget is used, perhaps with an increase for inflation):
Total budget for material purchases,
less Periodical subscription budget,
less Microform subscription budget,
less Bindery budget,
less Standing order budget,
remainder for Monographic/firm orders.
- A list is prepared of the (1) academic units and (2) library departments which will receive allocations of funds for material purchases.
- An amount is established to be divided among the library departments when funds permit.
- The remaining amount is allocated to the academic units based on the following formula. Figures for each year’s calculation of the formula are taken from U of M’s Office of Institutional Research (1st element), internal library records of average monographic costs by discipline (last element), and the latest edition of the U of M Undergraduate and Graduate Bulletins (all remaining elements).
Percent of total credit hour production, weighted as follows:
lower division, 1; upper division, 2; graduate level, 8
plus
Percent of total number of courses weighted as follows:
lower division, 1; upper division, 2; graduate level, 8
plus
Percent of total number of faculty members, weighted by 6
plus
Percent of U of M’s average cost of monographs by discipline, weighted
by 10
The results of these calculations are summed and converted to percentages that are then applied to the portion of monographic/firm order budget designated for use by the non-library departments/colleges. Formula generated amounts may be adjusted subjectively due to circumstances, e.g. increased to meet an annually established minimum allocation, to take into account new courses, degree programs, accreditation requirements, or quality of collection in a discipline; decreased following receipt of gift collections, special allocations, or other factors that have created inequity.
The library annually establishes two to four deadlines by which requests for portions of the allocations must be submitted to
the Acquisitions Department. Departments are apprised of the specific dates and percentages when the budget allocations are announced.
Contacts between University departments and the Acquisitions Department are maintained via Faculty Representatives appointed or elected by the respective agencies. Faculty Representatives work with Librarty Liaisons who in turn work with the Collection Development Librarian. The Head of the Acquisitions Department is to be notified by the agencies at the beginning of each academic year as to the individual so designated if different from the previous year. The department chairman or college dean is advised by the Associate Dean of Libraries of the total amount of library funds allocated to the respective agency immediately after the final approval of the budget. All requests submitted by members of departments/colleges should come through the Faculty Representatives to indicate proper approval of the requesting agency. Agencies of the university not having an allocation should contact the Collection Development Librarian regarding requests for purchases. Four-letter alphabetic fund codes are assigned to each agency as an accounting device; the codes must appear on all requests.
The Acquisitions Department will be alert to sales offers of material germane to departmental programs or of potential interest to various departments/colleges. The Faculty Representatives will be notified promptly of such offers, and if necessary, the Head of the Acquisitions Department will participate in negotiations between two
or more agencies which might be interested in sharing the cost of such material. Occasionally monies from the library departments' funds may be added to those from other university agencies to secure valuable materials, pending approval of the persons authorized to expend such funds.
Some domestic and foreign vendors offer programs to notify libraries of new publications which are available for sale. Generally these programs consist of computer produced forms or listings. The librarian in Acquisitions will work with the Faculty Representatives to establish parameters for subjects, intellectual levels, geographical areas, and format for these programs which will ensure that only a limited number of the forms covering material pertinent to the University curriculum are received.
At the end of each month Faculty Representatives receive a mailing which contains the following: (1) a financial report on the dollar value of requests submitted to date less the value of any requests which are out-of-print or are duplicates of material already owned by or on order for the library; (2) original request cards for items
which have been cataloged; (3) requests cards for items which were discovered to be out-of-print, duplicates of material already owned by or on order for the library, or otherwise unavailable, illegible, or had insufficient bibliographic information; (4) notification of orders which have been canceled, with reasons for the cancellation and an indication as to whether the material will be reordered; and (5) forms for material received on standing order, approval plans, or gifts which might be of interest to the department (although
not necessarily requested by the department).
The Head of the Acquisitions Department furnishes to the Associate Dean of Libraries a monthly statistical report on the following items: (1) number of requests received; (2) number of items bibliographically searched; (3) number of purchase orders issued; and (4) number of first payments for titles received through standing order by fund code, for hard copy and for micro format material.
As newly received material is transferred to the Catalog Department the following purchasing information is provided for entry on the shelf list record: (1) date received; (2) actual cost of material; and (3) name of the vendor or donor.
|
