-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Fund allocation -- Liu Liu
Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2001 11:36:15 -0400
From: David Goodman <dgoodman@princeton.edu>
Reply-To: dgoodman@princeton.edu
Organization: Princeton University Biology Library

There is no objective non-political way of doing it, since any formula
can
easily be adjusted to favor any particular department.
The test is whether you met the needs of the users, and you can
determine that
better than the faculty.  When you cannot meet all their need (as is
true for
every last one of us) then it comes down to how much resources you want
to use
for your in-house collection, and how much for interlibrary loan.

> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Fund allocation
> Date: Fri, 2 Feb 2001 17:37:41 -0500
> From: Liu Liu <liuliu@usa.com>
>
> Hi,
>
> Our College is a 2-year community college with a small
> library budget.  We have a budget for periodicals, but we
> do not do fund allocation for different subject
> areas/education
> programs.  Currently, we encourage the faculty to suggest
> periodicals to us, and we pretty much buy what they suggest.
> As a result, some departments have spent the periodical fund
> a lot more than the other departments.
>
> 1.  I used to work in a big university library where they
> allocate library fund to different departments (with
> periodical fund as a certain percentage of the total
> allocated book fund).  Is it common that communicty
> college libraries do not do fund allocation because of
> the small library budgets?
>
> 2.  Do you do fund allocation for periodicals?  If yes,
> how did you come up with your formula?
>
> 3.  If no, how do you make sure the periodical collection
> is balanced?
>
> I would appreciate if I could be directed to any
> literature on this subject.
>
> Thanks
>
> Pauline Smith
> Librarian

--
David Goodman
Biology Librarian
and Co-chair, Electronic Journals Task force
Princeton University Library
Princeton, NJ 08544-0001
phone: 609-258-3235
fax: 609-258-2627
e-mail: dgoodman@princeton.edu