Institutional Rank and Budget Efficiency in Academic Libraries

by Kiesewetter, H.

This study describes budget trends at Harvard University, Stanford University, Montana

State University at Bozeman and New Mexico State University at Las Cruces. These

financial trends are connected to the Shanghai Jiao Tong Academic Ranking of World

Universities’ rankings from 2004-2008. The connected data indicates that effective

budget patterns include keeping collection and materials budgets as large as possible

without sacrificing from a human resources perspective. The data also suggests that

universities should aim to allocate at least three percent of the total organization’s budget

to the library system. After establishing the connection between healthy libraries and

parent organizations, it is also recommended that libraries treat employees more like

business people who are responsible for the well-being of the organization than like

librarians whose primary concern is short-term.