Budgeting in Academic Libraries: The Polytechnic Perspective

Peter Brophy

doi:10.1629/050135

Abstract

Serials: The Journal for the Serials Community has been digitised and can be accessed in full on this website. All content is freely available on an open-access basis. Serials was published between 1988 and 2011. In 2012, the journal was retitled and is now published as Insights: the UKSG journal.

Highlights

Budgeting in Academic Libraries: The Polytechnic Perspective ill
The polytechnics and colleges sector has grown to such an extent that it represents the larger part of the undergraduate provision in the UK
The 'average' polytechnic library occupies buildings of nearly 6,000m2in total floor area distributed across four sites

Summary

Budgeting in Libraries

Budgeting in Academic Libraries: The Polytechnic Perspective ill. The White Paper marked a shift in government policy away from a unitary higher education system, with expansion draw simple conclusions about the nature of polytechnics and their libraries. Because students choose course modules from a wide range, they can 'pick and choose' from across the institution (the 'supermarket' anology is not 1 really appropriate since there is inevitably and properly limited choice, but it gives an idea of the power of the new higher education consumer) They no longer 'belong' exclusively to one small subject area: rather they have cross-disciplinary interests and needs. The previous year's budget will provide a major starting-point; the Librarian will make a case for an increased budget based on a number of significant factors, such as: inflation in book prices; inflation in periodical prices; imperative of new technology; increasing student numbers; increasing volume of publications; increased emphasis on student-centred learning; need to 'catch-up' on previous year's deficiences; comments made by course validation panels Such factors will be considered politely by institutional management, who will take notice to an extent dependent on their aspirations, other pressures on them and the inadequacy of the total funding available. The statistical evidence shows that none has managed to retain the unit of library resource in the face of increasing student numbers

Staffing Budgets

Other Budgets

Other Issues

Findings

Conclusion