Activity‐based cost management in academic libraries ‐ a project of the German Research Association

Abstract

In the context of the introduction of global budgeting, business management methods of control are gaining increasing importance in the academic sphere. Cost bearers are expecting from the universities a significant increase in the cost transparency of ser‐vice provision particularly in the structuring of a university cost accounting system. For the field of academic libraries the German Research Association has initiated the project ‘Cost Management for Academic Libraries’. The aim of the project is to develop a method of cost management appropriate to the financial management frame‐work of public sector provision for academic libraries. This contribution outlines the steps in the structuring of a method of cost controlling in the provision of academic literature and information worked out in the project. Because of the particular nature of the service and product provided by the library services, activity‐based cost man‐agement represents the most suitable method of control for libraries and other central facilities and can be used in particular to identify possibilities of cost reduction and to achieve optimum efficiency.