The Art of Collections Budgeting

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 FormulaWhat 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 • LibGuideSubject 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 • Given the databases we currently provide, is the program well served (1=badly served, 5= very well served) • Your subjective impression of how much research is done by students in the department (1=almost no research, 5 = tons of research) • Does this program rely on books? (1= doesn't need books at all, 5 = incredibly book oriented) • Does this program rely on articles? (1= doesn't need articles at all, 5 = incredibly article oriented) • Does this program rely on other types of resources? (1= doesn't need many other resources at all, 5 = incredibly dependent on other resources) • 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) • 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.pdf (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. What types of information sources are students allowed to use to compete their assignments?

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? • “Illiadhas 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 TechConnectBlog 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/S0099133311001121 • 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/conferences/confsandpreconfs/2013/papers/Head_Project.pdf

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