These procedures are under review. Please direct any queries to Donna Runner, Associate University Librarian, or Warren Gilson, Collections Services Manager.

The annual budget

Each School receives an annual budget for the purchase of library items, allocated by the library from its annual materials budget. This sum includes amounts to cover the cost of serials and titles in continuation (such as monographs-in-series). Monographic items (eg. books, DVDs, etc.) are purchased from remaining funds.

Firstly, money is taken "off the top" of the library materials budget to pay for electronic journal packages which are multidisciplinary in content, and to allow library purchases in such areas as Reference and Collection Development, the purchase of set texts and recommended readings, etc. The remainder is divided amongst the Schools within each Faculty on the basis of calculations involving the average price of resources within each School, and the numbers of students enrolled in the previous year (EFTSUs). The formula is:

Average price x [(HD x 4.5) + (PG x 1.5) + (UG x 1.0)] + 10,000

where

Average price = the average cost of a monograph purchased against that School's vote last year plus the average cost of a serial purchased against that School's vote last year, divided by 2.
HD = PhD EFTSUs, which are weighted by a factor of 4.5
PG = other postgraduate EFTSUs, which are weighted by a figure of 1.5
UG = undergraduate EFTSUs 10,000 = this is a number designed to give smaller schools some bedrock funding

The outcome of the formula is a number (which is not expressed in dollar terms). The School's budget is based on this number, though relativities between Schools may be adjusted by the Dean.

How is this money spent?

Serials purchases must be paid in advance (usually in October of the previous year). In addition, some money is put away to cover the cost of standing orders for monographs-in-series. This means that much of the money received by the School early in the new academic year is already committed.

The remaining money is intended for the purchase of books. Funds are no longer allocated separately to each discipline for book purchases, but expenditure is monitored to inform the library of patterns in collection development and need.

Funds used for monographic purchases must be committed by October each year, and cannot be carried over to the next year if unspent, or reassigned for recurrent expenditure such as subscriptions.

For further information, please contact Warren Gilson, Collections Services Manager.