In order to help minimize spread of the coronavirus and protect our campus community, Cowles Library is adjusting our services, hours, and building access. Read more...
A. Budget Allocation
The acquisition budget is prepared annually. The Head of Collection Development prepares a budget recommendation based on input from both the Library and teaching faculty. Particular attention is paid to sustaining the strength of the collection in support of current programs, and on identifying new areas of study or areas that need enhancement. Based on this input, the Dean of the Library works with the Provost to develop a University budget recommendation. This allocation is normally announced in the spring of each year and goes into effect on June 1. The materials budget is divided between nonrecurring (Books, Media) and recurring (Serials, Journals, Electronic Database subscriptions) expenditures. For budgetary purposes, the primary differentiation is between one-time and continuing expenditures.
Each College/School (and in the case of the College of Arts & Sciences, each Department) receives a budget allocation assigned from the Library's overall materials budget with which to order books or monographs to help build the Library collection. Note: only those Colleges/Departments which have active Library Liaisons (primarily consisting of attending the bi-annual Liaison meetings and responding to library messages/queries) will receive a departmental funding allocation. (See "XIII. Library Liaison Program.")
Submitted orders should meet the criteria established in this document. Each college or department is expected to appoint a Liaison to work with the Library. Cowles Library will designate a librarian to work with each college or department. The Departmental Liaison assigned by either the Dean of the College or the Chair of the Department should administer this allocation and work closely with his/her colleagues to manage it. The Departmental Liaison will receive a statement at the beginning of each month during the school year from the Acquisitions Associate informing them of their departmental "balance" as of the last working day of the prior month. If there are any unspent monies in the annual departmental allocation they will revert to the Library each spring (usually late February) so that the Library faculty may use the funds to purchase materials. First preference will be given to the subject areas from which the reversions came.
Each College/School/Department also has funds allocated by the library towards serial/journal subscriptions. This budget does not normally increase from year to year, except for an annual inflationary increase. If the library receives sufficient additional funds from the University to cover inflation, serials cuts are not normally necessary. In those years in which the library does not receive enough additional funding to cover inflation, Librarian Faculty Liaisons and Departmental Liaisons must work together to achieve the necessary budget figure. (See "V. Library Collections; D. Serials" for more information regarding Serials and Serials cancellations.) Through their Departmental Liaisons, faculty in each College/School/Department have the opportunity to review the list of serials/journals assigned to their College or Department each Spring, and to make recommendations for changes and new titles. (See "Appendix 4: Procedures for Ordering a Journal (print and electronic) and Electronic Databases" for more information.)
The Library also allocates funds to support subscriptions to Electronic databases. The growth of this portion of the budget typically outpaces any increase in the Library's materials budget each year. (See "V. Library Collections. E. Electronic Collections" for more information, and also Appendix 4 "Procedures for Ordering a Journal (print and electronic) and Electronic Databases.")
B. Conspectus
The Library regularly revises the Library Conspectus, which is a strategy for setting monographic acquisitions and purchasing guidelines for academic disciplines. This process entails relating the number of titles published each year, broken down by the Library of Congress Classification system, to Drake's curriculum. Groups of call numbers are assigned to each academic discipline and the percentages of the volumes being published are weighted by the assigned level of the program (as assigned in "III. Curricular Analysis" section). This process produces a total monographic guideline figure or a monographic purchasing target for each discipline. The Conspectus approach provides acquisition targets based on the number of books published in any given year, and it links to the Collection Development Policy based upon assigned weights.
C. Supplemental Gift Funds
The Library has a limited amount of supplemental money regularly available to it. Generally referred to as "gift money," most of it consists of the proceeds of bequests from which the library receives the income. The funds are limited, and most have restrictions. The Major Supplemental Gift Funds currently are:
Griffing – designated for purchase of books related to diverse cultures and world problems.
Herriott – designated for purchase of books on history and the humanities.
Lynner – designated for purchase of books on American literature.
Becker – designated for purchase of books on rural churches.
Koch – designated for purchase of books on insurance.
Hyman – designated for purchase of books of fiction, drama and literary criticism.
