LIBR 580 Collection Management

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LIBR 580Collection Management

Fiscal Management Collection Management Policies
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Review

• Planning activities help libraries to set
  priorities in all areas
• Staffing
• Collections
• Capital planning
• Programs and services
• and Budget

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Planning is key to good fiscal management

• Plan ahead and plan often
• Set clear goals priorities
• Always be able to justify your requests and
  decisions
• - to staff
• - to users
• Remember that no budget formula will please
  everyone!!!

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Fiscal management includes...

• Acquiring the funds
• appropriations - parent org
• self-generating - fines, photocopying/printing
  etc
• endowments, donations
• Allocating the funds
• part of collections policy
• based on formula, or
• flexible depending on needs

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Fiscal management includes...

• Expending the funds
• acquisition dept/accounts
• tracking and reporting
• targets and deadlines
• working with vendors

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Fiscal management needs

• Vision
• Understanding of user community
• Advocacy skills
• Negotiating skills
• Planning skills
• Project management skills
• Basic financial skills
• and...

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... an understanding of politics

• A budget reflects the realities of power and
  control
• Always involves trade-offs between different
  groups
• Always try to retain the flexibility to shift
  funds within your budget
• Always try to keep a contingency fund
• A good budget protects the collection manager
  from charges of favoritism

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Types of funds

• Operating funds
• Wages, staff benefits, heat, light, cleaning, and
  (usually) the collection
• Capital funds
• New buildings, renovations, furniture, equipment

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Types of funds

• Special funds
• grants, donations
• one-time funding (Indirect Cost of Research,
  tuition fee increase)
• consortia savings (CRKN - 3 year)
• budget lines for special funding

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Budget cycles

• May run on a calendar year basis with the year
  end being December 31
• or a fiscal year, for example March 31, with the
  new budget year beginning April 1. (schools may
  have a fiscal year end of July 31 with the new
  budget year starting August 1 to fit in with the
  operations of schools in general)
• Budgets may be straightforward with no roll over
  of funds at the year end or follow some pre-set
  system such as
• Zero base budgeting
• Program/performance budgeting
• These decisions are usually set by the financial
  offices of the parent organization
• Johnson p. 93 Budget Planning Cycle example

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Allocating collection funds

• Allocation of funds can divided by
• format e.g. monographs, serials
• subject division e.g. cooking/travel/popular
  reading
• faculty e.g. humanities, social sciences/music
• branch/subject library (decentralized)
• Or, allocation of funds can be a combination of
  above
• monographs (format), travel (subject), branch
  (location)
• Budget line items will indicate how a budget is
  divided - larger libraries more line items

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Issues

• Acquisition budgets face increased pressures
  (costs, exchange rates, shipping)
• Serials (esp in academic libraries)
• New formats
• Transition from print to electronic collections
• Should the CM budget still be considered
  sacred?
• Can be political - CM policy

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Art of encumbering

• Unexpended Encumbered Expended
• Day 1 1000 0 0
• Day 2 975 25 0
• Day 62 980 0 20

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Art of encumbering

• to expend all your money at the end of the budget
  year and still have materials on order
  (encumbered vs invoice price)
• and to anticipate what percentage of your orders
  will never arrive and overspend by that amount

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Collection management policies

• Why have one?
• Examines the purpose of the collection
• Informs selectors and users of purpose
• Assures consistent and balanced growth
• Protects against undue pressure from special
  interest groups
• Guides planning activities and helps inform
  fiscal decisions

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Collection management policies

• Why do some libraries not have one?
• Never needed one, thanks!
• Too much time and effort to do a full collection
  assessment
• My library is only collects books under 100 pages
  with blue covers
• No staff
• OK, so were a bit lazy

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What Should a CM Policy Include?

• 1. Overview
• description of community
• identification of clientele
• brief description of programs/services
• philosophy/mission of the library

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• 2. Selection Statements/Tables
• who does selection
• who has ultimate responsibility
• formats
• handling of user requests
• collecting levels for various areas
• relationship of electronic resources to print
• licensing procedures for electronic resources
• cooperative agreements with other libraries
• new programs clause

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• 3. Gifts
• 4. Weeding/Collection Maintenance
• 5. Preservation
• 6. Intellectual Freedom
• handling complaints
• 7. Revision Schedule
• see examples on Acqweb.org

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Sample collection levels RLG

• 1. Out Of Scope- the area is not collected.
• 2. Minimal Level - contains little beyond very
  basic works.
• 3. Instructional Level Support - adequate to
  support undergraduate and most graduate study.
• 4. Research Level - contains major public source
  material as well as material in all pertinent
  foreign languages. Fully adequate to support
  research.
• 5. Comprehensive Level - aims at including all
  significant works of recorded knowledge.
  Exhaustive in scope.
• see Johnson p. 82

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Intellectual Freedom Section

• Usually declares support for the Canadian Library
  Association Statement on Intellectual Freedom,
  which is appended to the policy.
• Outlines specific procedures for handling
  complaints about the librarys resources - books,
  videos, Internet sites accessed, etc.

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Intellectual Freedom Section

• One of the most crucial parts of the policy.
  Essential to have in place before a complaint is
  received.
• Sometimes a complaint form is included.
• Public libraries usually include an in loco
  parentis statement.

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Sample In Loco Parentis Statement

• Responsibility for reading and viewing done by
  minors rests with their parents or guardians, not
  with library staff members. Selection of adult
  materials will not be limited by the possibility
  that they may come into the possession of minors.
  This statement applies to all material formats,
  including electronic.

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• The committee to decide whether spawning should
  be taught in school.

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Characteristics of a Good CM Policy

• tries for the ideal, but is based in reality
• uses very clear, concise language
• puts a positive emphasis on customer needs and
  rights
• and avoids a shopping list of negatives
• emphasizes the reliable judgement of the staff,
  especially the professional staff
• regularly reviewed