Over the past decade, the financial crisis has led to reduced government funding for academic libraries in Greece. Now more than ever, it is imperative for library managers to improve their knowledge and understanding of cost behavior, in order to effectively deliver high quality services at decreasing costs. To do so, they need to apply…

Using data for 2,717 journals and more than 9,000 acquisition opportunities, this study shows how journal prices vary by level of aggregation (single-journal subscription or full-text database), resource provider type (scholarly society, university press, other nonprofit organization, commercial publisher, or library vendor), and broad subject…

This report provides actionable recommendations based on real-world case studies that libraries can apply to help make their own collaborations successful and sustainable. The report shares experiences from the Texas Data Repository, Portage Network, and Data Curation Network to illuminate the challenges, opportunities, and considerations of…

The OCLC Research report "Library Collaboration as a Strategic Choice: Evaluating Options for Acquiring Capacity" explores library collaboration as a key strategy for academic libraries in acquiring needed capacity, but also contextualizes it as one sourcing approach among a range of options available to libraries. The decision for…

Surveys library directors in the Ontario Council of University Libraries consortium regarding weeding, last copy print archiving, and the role of the consortium. Responses reveal divergent opinions but an answer lies in partnerships. Cost remains an over-riding factor and the uncertainty of future budgets make commitment to long-term planning…

This discussion report identifies key issues in the management of special collections material in the 21st century. The report uses a broad definition of "special collections," which encompasses distinctive material in all media and attendant library services. The group's main focus was on 19th- and 20th-century materials, including…

Issues 266 through 282 of "Fast Facts" from the Library Research Service present data collected from libraries in Colorado and throughout the nation. Topics addressed in these "Fast Facts" from 2009 include interlibrary loan in academic libraries, public librarian salaries, book, newspaper, and periodical prices from 2004 to…

The authors recount experiences of the variety of problems and issues involved in providing access to electronic journals in a large academic library. The paper excludes concerns emanating from decisions to subscribe to aggregations such as those produced by vendors like EBSCO, but concentrates on scholarly journals ordered individually, or as…

This essay relates Howard R. Bowen's revenue theory of cost and Laws of Higher Education Cost to the situation of the academic library, highlighting pursuit of excellence, library expenses, cost-effective measures, and decision rules for resource allocation. (EJS)

Explains activity-based costing (ABC), discusses the benefits of ABC to library managers, and describes the steps involved in implementing ABC in an Australian academic library. Discusses the budgeting process in universities, and considers benefits to the library. (Author/LRW)

ARL is the bimonthly report on research library issues and actions from ARL (Association of Research Libraries), CNI (Coalition of Networked Information), and SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition). ARL reports on current issues of interest to academic and research library administrators, staff, and users; higher education…

The rationale for using Activity-Based Costing (ABC) in a library is to allocate indirect costs to products and services based on the factors that most influence them. This paper discusses the benefits of ABC to library managers and explains the steps involved in implementing ABC in the user services area of an Australian academic library.…

Discussion of the decline in the purchasing power of academic libraries' acquisitions budgets focuses on why and how the acquisitions budget should be integrated into the broader library and institutional budgeting and planning process to help manage the costs of scholarly communication. Highlights include collection development and remodeling the…

Identifies and documents the economic costs of faculty status for academic librarians. Costs include travel expenses for conferences, resources for writing papers and sending surveys, and other research. Encourages campus and library managers to employ economic principles as a methodology by which to analyze their institutions. (Author/AEF)

Securing adequate insurance coverage is an important aspect of preserving library collections. Insurers determine rates, within an institution's limits of coverage, based on the library building's environment and the library's estimate of the collection's replacement cost. Methods of categorizing and projecting these costs are explored with…