As academic libraries around the world face the dual challenges of rising demand but limits on funding, managers look for ways to improve library performance that do not add significantly to the budget. This paper presents a novel relationship between intrapreneurship and Enterprise 2.0 that suggests there are relatively cheap and easy ways to…

Using an electronic shelf-reading system a cost-benefit analysis was conducted of an inventory/shelf-reading project in a medium-sized academic library. Analyses include time spent, cataloging discrepancies, books found with active statuses, mis-shelving rate and distance, and subsequent use of found books. Correctly re-shelving "missing"…

This study categorizes 6959 reference desk transactions to determine how many of the queries require the attention of a librarian. Results indicate that 89% could likely be answered by non-librarians. From the results of this and other studies, the author explores the cost-effectiveness of staffing a traditional reference desk with librarians.…

Although the true costs of inter-library loans (ILL) are unknown, universities increasingly rely on them to provide better library services at lower costs. Through a case study, we show how to perform a time-driven activity-based costing analysis of ILL and provide evidence of the benefits of such an analysis.

This study presents a method for journal collection evaluation using citation analysis. Cost-per-use (CPU) for each title is used to measure cost-effectiveness with higher CPU scores indicating cost-effective titles. Use data are based on the impact factor and locally collected citation score of each title and is compared to the cost of managing…

Explains lack of support for AACR2 in terms of its implementation costs, the difficulty of identifying benefits, and intrusion upon local priorities. Suggestions are made for improving the effectiveness of the next code revision. (RAA)

Contrasts traditional objectives for library catalogs with current bibliographic control practices to protest the increasing complexity and cost of cataloging. Research is urged to develop more cost-effective bibliographic control procedures and techniques. Eight references are listed. (RAA)

Illustrates that proper use of location information in the NUC and OCLC databases can reduce costs and improve interlibrary loan efficiency. (Author/RAA)

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)

Suggests the acquisition of microform serials as a solution to the problems of cost, space, personnel resources, rate of acquisition, and rate of consumption of shelving space associated with library acquisition and maintenance of serials. Cost benefits for a select number of microform serials are considered. Nine references are listed. (EJS)

Discussion of using document-management software to locate, acquire, and process articles for storage in an academic scholar's personal collection focuses on a study that examined the feasibility of using either DB/TextWorks or PageKeeper. Results favor PageKeeper due to a lower cost, ease of use, and other features. (Author/LRW)

Discussion of the development of a budget formula allocation system for library acquisitions is followed by a literature survey on the choice of variables to be included. The steps in the development of the allocation formula and the solutions to a number of practical problems are presented. (Author/RAA)

Presents the results of a study to measure library materials use and cost at the University of Pittsburgh, the errors and inaccuracies encountered in the study, and the responses of faculty members and University librarians to the findings. (CWM)

Discusses the rising costs of cataloging and the need to provide access to the increasing volume of library materials. Various cataloging elements are examined in terms of the quality they add to the record, responsibility to library users is considered, and distinctions between essential and useful information in cataloging records are discussed.…

Suggests such traditional measures of an academic library's worth as volumes added, numbers of serials, total staff, and materials expenditures have no significant correlation to the effectiveness of a library's services or user satisfaction; also that future success in effectiveness lies with cost effective management of available resources. (RAA)