ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


10701 C&RL News

this campus: W hen will o th er branch libraries be 
offering th e service?

Since the program  is similar to regular circula­
tion we hope to make use o f th e circulation com po­
n en t o f the integrated library system (LS/2000) 
currently being installed in the branch. This should 
reduce the load o f manual record keeping for the 
service. A P C -based database o f faculty names,

campus addresses, and requested titles has already 
been created. F u tu re developm ent o f the service 
could include evaluation by means o f b rief ques­
tionnaires and w ider prom otion. Eventually, w hen 
m ore full text articles are available online and 
subscriptions to p rin ted  journals decline, the old 
ballgame will becom e obsolete.

Innovations: Allocating one-time funds 
on the basis o f weighted need

By Rickey D. Best

A rchivist and Special Collections Librarian 
A uburn University at M ontgomery

In D ecem b er 1989, th e Auburn University at 
M ontgomery Library received $200,000 in o n e­
tim e money from th e University adm inistration, to 
be used for the purchase o f library materials. Be­
cause th e acquisitions staff is small (one profes­
sional, two paraprofessionals and two students), the 
influx o f these funds on top o f the allocations 
already m ade for th e  fiscal year w ould have 
swamped th e unit.

To prevent creating an unm anageable burden 
on th e acquisitions staff and to ensure th a t the 
available monies w ere spent as effectively as pos­
sible, th e library began examining ways to allocate 
the funds. Traditionally, funds w ere allocated to 
the teaching faculty o f th e university’s five schools 
(Business, Education, Liberal Arts, Nursing, and 
Sciences) according to a form ula which took into 
account the credit hour production o f each o f the 
schools and each o f th e departm ents within the 
school. Using credit hour production as the driving 
mechanism for dividing th e funds, however, fails to 
take into account th e needs o f th e various program s 
or differences in costs associated with m eeting 
those needs. In considering how to spend the new 
monies, two elem ents w ere needed:

•  a plan that would ensure the efficient and 
effective expenditure of resources by perm itting 
the library to funnel monies into those areas o f the 
collection showing the greatest need; and

•  a formula to fairly match the allocations with 
collection needs.

After much discussion, it was determ ined that 
the most efficient m ethod of expending the one­
time funds was approval plans. These plans would 
perm it the library to acquire current materials in

support o f th e university curriculum  while p erm it­
ting the teaching faculty to use their allocations to 
purchase retrospectively. T hree vendors w ere in­
vited to make presentations: Blackwell N orth 
America, Baker and Taylor, and Yankee Book 
Peddler. Blackwell’s approval plan was chosen for 
breadth o f coverage, discounts, availability o f elec­
tronic ordering, and th e m anagem ent reports of­
fered.

W ith a vendor selected, the library was now 
required to determ ine the allocations for the ap­
proval plan. T he library staff worked with Vaughn 
Judd, an assistant professor o f m arketing in the 
school o f business, to devise a form ula th at would 
identify the relative needs o f the collection.

Before th e formula could be constructed, the 
collection need ed  to be m easured against som e­
thing. Books f o r  College Libraries, 4th ed. was 
selected for com parison because of its breadth of 
coverage and because it emphasizes the holdings of 
undergraduate libraries.

T he form ula developed included th e n u m b er of 
books BCL listed for a subject, th e num ber o f 
books included on th e BCL list b u t missing from 
the library collection (based upon a sample), the 
percentage o f deficiency (the num ber o f books in 
the core list which the library lacked divided by the 
total n u m b er o f books for th e subject in the list), the 
average book cost, th e deficiency cost (num ber of 
books deficient ‹-› average cost p e r book) and the 
weighted need (deficiency cost ‹-› percentage o f d e ­
ficiency).

To determ ine th e n u m b er o f books th e library 
lacked, th e staff began sampling th e collection. 
M atching the n u m b er o f titles held against the



December 1990 /1071

num ber o f recom m ended titles in Books f o r  Col­
lege Libraries gave us a view o f th e  relative 
strengths and weaknesses o f th e collection by p ro ­
viding a percentage o f deficiency. F o r example, in 
history a total o f 4,657 titles are recom m ended on 
the core list. O u r sample suggested th a t th e library 
lacked 3,260 o f th e recom m ended titles, or 70%. 
The deficiency cost o f this portion o f th e collection 
was the average cost p e r book in history ($25) ‹-› th e 
num ber o f books deficient, or $81,500. To d e te r­
mine the w eighted n eed  for history, th e deficiency 
cost was m ultiplied by th e percentage o f th e defi­
ciency ($81,500 ‹-› 70%), resulting in a w eighted 
need o f $57,050. This is th e estim ated cost for 
adding to th e collection th e titles in th e core list th at 
the library lacks.

W eighted needs w ere d eterm in ed  for all o f the 
five schools in th e  university, with each subject 
being id e n tifie d  as a p e rc e n ta g e  o f th e  total 
weighted n eed  o f th e school to which it belonged. 
The percentages derived from this process w ere 
applied to th e available funds in o rd er to derive an 
appropriate allocation.

T he chart below shows th e application o f the 
formula for th e d epartm ents in th e school o f liberal 
arts and th e determ ination o f th at school’s portion 
of the total allocation using th e formula.

T he use o f this form ula provided th e library with 
an objective means o f determ ining n eed  based 
upon m easuring the library’s holdings against a list 
of recom m ended titles.

T he total w eighted needs w ere added up and 
divided into th e total o f th e individual d ep artm en ­
tal w eighted needs, providing a percentage o f the 
total w eighted n eed  to be allocated to th e d e p a rt­
ment. T he percentage was m ultiplied by $200,000, 
the am ount o f th e allocation, to determ ine the 
individual portion o f th e allocation for each d ep art­
ment.

Using th e one-tim e allocation to establish ap­
proval plans for th e various departm ents has p e r­
m itted th e library to focus upon m aintaining cu r­
re n t levels o f acquisition. T he form ula used in this 
instance perm its th e library to identify those areas 
o f th e collection having th e greatest n eed  and to 
focus funding to strengthen those areas.

C ertain problem s are in h eren t in th e application 
o f a form ula such as th e one described above. 
Problem s include: 1) th e failure o f th e form ula to 
take into consideration th e interdisciplinary nature 
o f certain fields and 2) th e failure to factor differ­
ences in behavior am ong th e disciplines into the 
formula. Fields such as business and th e hard 
sciences, which make a g reater use o f serials, b e n e ­
fit disproportionately in term s o f m onographic allo­
cations. Because th e form ula was not considered 
for th e allocation o f serial monies, those fields 
requiring g reater expenditures for serials received 
larger allocations for monographic materials. P e r­
haps th e m ost significant drawback to the form ula 
is th e use o f historical data to determ ine increases 
in th e cu rren t acquisitions levels. D iscrepancies 
betw een th e collection and th e core list, in this case 
Books f o r  College Libraries, rem ain unless funds 
are devoted to th e acquisition o f retrospective 
materials. However, th e use o f th e formula, based 
upon m atching collection strengths against a core 
list, has great flexibility in th at m ore detailed and 
appropriate lists can be developed for specific 
subjects. T he form ula also takes into consideration 
variations in average book costs for different sub­
jects while identifying th e expenditures necessary 
to rectify deficiencies in particular areas.

W hile not w ithout some drawbacks, th e use o f 
th e form ula described above provides a reasonable 
m ethod o f allocating funds quickly, while taking 
into account th e relative strengths and weaknesses 
o f a collection. ■ ■

APPLICATION OF THE ALLOCATION FORMULA

Discipline # B C L # Lacked % Lacked Avg. Cost Deficiency Cost Weighted Need

History 4,657 3,260 70% $25 $81,500 $57,050
English 6,938 4,870 70% $28 $136,360 $95,452
Sociology 1,234 852 56% $29 $24,708 $16,060
Anthropology 179 41 77% $31 $4,278 $3,294
Geography 196 61 69% $43 $5,805 $4,005
Fine Arts 1,086 924 85% $43 $39,732 $33,772
Music 575 379 83% $43 $16,297 $13,526
Theatre 313 241 77% $43 $10,363 $7,979
Communication 111 64 58% $28 $1,792 $1,039

Discipline Allocation Discipline Allocation

Fine Arts $13,545
History $29,575 Music $6,618
English $45,223 Theatre $3,309
Sociology $9,927 Communication $2,103



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