Trimming the Library Materials Budget: Communication and Preparation as Key Elements

Abstract:  Many university libraries are facing budget flat-lines or reductions. While finding ways to reduce or reallocate a libraries budget is not new, the planning processes within this article merit consideration, especially for small and medium-sized libraries. Librarians must build and maintain strong relationships with constituencies and be forthright in sharing information so that joint decisions can be made. Developing a strategic plan to address the budget shortfalls and having an effective communication plan are keys to the successful outcome of any budget reduction or reallocation process. This article details the strategies and implementation of one university library.

No librarian wants to a talk to university administrators about the decrease of allocations to the acquisition budget, especially when that decrease affects long-held serials titles. For a large number of academic libraries, however, this situation is becoming a reality on a much more frequent cycle than the library or its constituents are comfortable with.1 A 2009 survey conducted by CIBER research group5 at University College London, in conjunction with the Charleston Conference, YBP Library Services, and ebrary, found that 43.8% of academic libraries are already or would be facing cuts of up to 10% of their annual budgets. Of the respondents, 39.4% said that they expected their budgets to remain relatively the same, which, when looking at the rises in subscription-based costs, amounts to an overall cut for a library's acquisition budget.3

With the realization that approximately 50% of academic libraries are facing consistent budget reductions, librarians must draft talking points and start asking the questions: What is the best approach when speaking with the university community about what is going on with the libraries acquisition budget and what steps will be needed to ensure the fiscal solvency of the library? Moreover, how can librarians frame these conversations in ways that will be accepted and received in a positive manner by most, if not all, of the library's constituents across campus?

The author of this article details one approach to dealing with this situation in a constructive and effective manner and articulates the experience of Murray State University Libraries (Kentucky) as librarians conducted a journal budget cut and re-allocation of funding to ensure the fiscal solvency of its acquisitions budget. The major reasons that the library's process was successful were that a communication plan was created in advance and implemented throughout the process and a strategy for allocation was also developed and modified from past library processes that allowed for the communication and presentation of the information in a variety of effective manners to all of the stakeholders.

Murray State University Libraries decided on six steps that would allow for maximum notification time and information dispersal. It is the assertion of the author that the level of open communication and data sharing was vital to the successful outcomes of this process. The following is a synopsis of that approach, a summary of the outcomes of the project, and details regarding the formula and the communication style and plan that were employed during the process. While the process of cutting journals is not a new prospect for libraries, the processes within this article are not necessarily commonly followed practices of libraries when reductions occur. In a time in which funding is drastically curtailed across entire universities, the need to build and maintain strong relationships with the constituencies increases in importance. Open communication and dialogue about the library materials budget and serials allocations and decisions are key to the successful maintenance of these relationships.