Results of the 1999-2000 Library Materials Budget Survey of the ALCTS/CMDS/Chief Collection Development Officers of Large Research Libraries Discussion Group

March 2000

Compiled by
Robert G. Sewell
Associate University Librarian
Collection Development and Management
Rutgers University
rgsewell@rci.rutgers.edu

2000 Spreadsheet (Nine-page spreadsheet with full survey results)

Survey Results

1. Library materials budget expenditures 1998/99 and budget allocation 1999/2000:

The average 1998/99 materials budget expenditure was $9,047,113 and the average base budget was $7,917,884. Materials budget expenditures were on average 34.4% of the total library expenditures. The average base allocation in 1999/2000 is $7,957,775. Yale again leads the respondents with an expenditure of $17,661,000 for library materials, followed by Michigan at $12,756,616, UCLA at $12,640,818, and Cornell at $11,323,391. Eight libraries spent over $10,000,000.

2. 1999/2000 Percentage of Increases or Decreases to the Base Budget:

The average increase to the base budget in 1999/2000 is 5.9%, the largest average increase in seven years. UCLA received the largest percentage increase at 14.0%, followed by Rutgers with a 13.0% increase. Two libraries reported no increases (Arizona State and Virginia) and two had decreases in their base budgets: National Library of Medicine: -3.0% and Washington: -16%.

3. One-time funds, i.e., one year supplements to the base:

This source of funds continues to be an important factor in materials budget allocations. The average for 1998/99 was $443,474. Texas and UCLA received the largest amount in this category, $1,977,137 and $1,911,457 respectively. The average for the current year is $446,331 with three universities receiving over $1 million in this category, UCLA, Illinois, and Texas.

4. Endowed funds:

Reporting in this category remains problematic. Based on data submitted, the average expenditure from endowed income was $520,372.

5. Bibliographic Utilities:

Eight reported supporting bibliographic utilities (such as OCLC and RLIN) out of their materials budget in 1998/99; most do not. Among those that do, $85,923 is the average expenditure, with Michigan spending as much as $145,000.

6. Binding:

Twenty reported binding expenditures from the materials budget and among those, the average expenditure was $263,517, representing a slight increase over 1997/98. Columbia and UCLA both spent over $600,000 on binding. This is strong evidence that the physical library is not disappearing as quickly as some of us have predicted.

7. Memberships:

Twenty-two reported paying for Center for Research Libraries membership from their materials budgets at an average cost of $44,090. Fourteen reported expenditures for other memberships with an average expenditure of $33,666. Texas and Rutgers spent the most on other memberships, about $75,000 each.

8. ILL and Document Delivery:

This category reflects expenditures from the materials budget for access rather than ownership. Fourteen reported not using the materials budget for ILL. Among those that do, UCLA spend $198,674 in this category, with the average being $48,177. Twelve reported not using the materials budget for Document Delivery, including UCLA that uses it for ILL. Among those that do, Arizona spent $237,538, greatly exceeding the average of $60,873.

9. Allocations for Electronic Resources:

For some reason this year, no one was able to report 1998/99 expenditures for electronic resources. Seventeen, however, reported current (1999/2000) allocations for electronic resources, the average being $944,511, with nine spending over that amount. Virginia reports devoting $2,053,400 and to electronic resources in 1999/2000. Many others do not use their materials budgets for most of their electronic resources, with funding coming from other sources especially from additional state consorital funding as is the case in Ohio and California.

10. Balance between Serials and Monographs:

Following a trend noted in last year’s report, the balance between serials and monographs spending continues to change with the monograph side increasing. The average is 57.% for serials and 34.2 for monographs. This seems counter-intuitive since prices of serials continue to increase far beyond the price of monographs and electronic resources almost across-the-board are paid with access fees on a subscription basis. Of the twenty-six reporting in this category, only six said they do not include electronic resources in this category.

11. Serials Cancellations:

Serials cancellations are down on average over previous years. In 1998/99, among the twelve that reported cancellations, the average was 184 cancel1ations , with Indiana canceling 410, Rutgers 396 and Washington 300. In 1999/2000, thirteen reported plans to cancel, thirteen planned no cancellations. British Columbia plans to cancel 854, Iowa 526, and Rutgers 336.

12. Approval plans:

All reporting libraries confirmed they have approval plans. The average expenditure last year for approval and blanket orders was $943,307, interestingly almost the same amount reported being allocated for electronic resources this year ($944,511). Approval plans are quite stable, with no significant reductions but thirteen have increased their approval budgets, by an average of $58,170 among libraries reporting specific figures. Toronto spent the most at $US2,678,143; Library of Congress was next at $2,500,000.

13. Processing Costs:

Only four institutions reported using the materials budget for processing cost. Virginia spent the most, $120,000, with the average of the four at $58,818.

14. Expenditures by Subject Categories:

The average percentages for expenditures in broad subject categories in 1998/99 were as follows: Art and Humanities: 15.8%; Social Sciences: 16.9; STM: 44.9%; Area Studies: 7.7%; and Interdisciplinary: 17.5%.

Comments from Survey Compiler:

Since the question for total 1998/99 materials budget expenditures was dropped inexplicably from the questionnaire, this figure has been supplied by adding the three components: base budget, endowed, and one-time funds. This may not be correct in each case. See this note from UCLA:

Library Materials Budget Survey 1999/2000 University of California, Los Angeles - Footnotes: 1. Total 1998/1999 Library Operating and Materials Budget figure is $34,155,617. Total 1998/1999 Library Materials Budget figure is $12,640,818. The sum of the three components reported by UCLA amounted to $10,986,200.

The conversion rate for Canadian Dollars was 1.5103 used for the British Columbia and Toronto figures.

Michigan has 23 FTE staff and an overall operating budget in excess of $1,000,000 for building and supporting digital library resources. This commitment gives us the ability to build and mount resources that are not reflected as collection.

For 1998-99, the electronic expenditures figure for Columbia does not generally include e-journal expenditures which are in the regular periodicals expenditures figure. Beginning in 1999-00 we are starting to phasing e-journal funds into the electronic budget.

Two comment-related to serials: survey should include figures for new subscriptions as well as for cancellations. This will be added to the questionnaire next time.