2018 Charleston Library Conference

The shifting landscape of academic programs, scholarly communication, acquisition environment, and staffing patterns in academic libraries necessitates changes in resources budget structure and allocation models to align with and be responsive to this new landscape. This presentation includes case studies from two libraries. They share changes made to their budget structure and allocation, and invite participants to a conversation on budget allocation models in libraries.

Carnegie Mellon University Libraries is changing their budget allocation in response to new educational programs and new library faculty. This case study will discuss these changes and describe how the budget will be allocated in the future at Carnegie Mellon University.



In fall 2017, the University of Washington Libraries began a multi-year process to examine and update the resources budget structure and allocation. The budget structure and allocation model at UW Libraries remained fundamentally unchanged for over twenty years. Recognizing that the budget structure and allocation model no longer aligned with the changes in our environment UW Libraries initiated this process with the goal of developing a model better designed to serve students and researchers, and allow us to respond nimbly to the challenges and opportunities.

In this case study we will discuss the budget review process and describe the phased approach including an environmental scan, working with a consultant and subject librarians to gather feedback, and describe some of the challenges. We will describe the changes we implemented in the first year.

As part of this process we conducted a survey of academic libraries on their budget structure and allocation practices. The survey ran from June 20 to July 31, 2018 and received 90 responses. We will present a summary of findings from this survey, discuss some conclusions that inform our budget review process, as well as describe trends in academic library budget practices.