Budget Strategies
Our immediate goal is to provide access to as much unique content as possible. Our underlying goal is to build a sustainable financial model that will provide ongoing, reliable access to materials wherever they reside.
Many of the strategies listed below mirror similar suggestions made in the Report of the Blue Ribbon Committee on Libraries, April 1998 (PDF). Advances have been made in many of these arenas and the Library continues to pursue and expand these ideas.
- Reduce duplication of content — journals available electronically.
UC is collecting centrally an archival print copy for over twenty of the largest journal publishers, including Blackwell, Elsevier, IEEE, Sage, Springer, Taylor & Francis, Wiley. This provides the Library with more flexibility regarding on-site collection management and at the same time reduces the processing and acquisitions costs associated with managing two formats.
For more information: Challenges and Strengths - Shared Print Archive. - Reduce duplication of content — other formats.
UC Berkeley has and will continue to realize savings by discontinuing hardcopy versions of other materials, e.g., newspapers and reference tools, to which we have electronic access. - Perform cost/benefit analysis for titles that used to be a one-time cost and have since become an annual lien.
Typically, as encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc., have been made available electronically, the pricing structure has changed from a one-time expense for the current version, to an annual expense to cover ongoing updates. In some cases this has resulted in a sky-rocketing of net cost for the same item. UC Berkeley Library is regularly reviewing these titles on a case by case basis, and at times is negotiating for better prices or awaiting changes in this unsustainable pricing model. - Assist the campus to become less reliant on print.
Most members of the campus community have already found the benefits of being able to access materials electronically from home, office, and at off-site research facilities. There is a wealth of material to be had — with some learning curve involved. Library staff will continue to work closely with faculty, students, and staff to get the most out of electronic resources. Library staff are available to meet with individuals, to attend departmental meetings, to meet with GSIs, and to provide in-classroom presentations of subject-relevant resources and tools.
For more information: Library liaisons - Participate with the campus to identify the highest priorities for collections.
In order to best use the fixed budget we have within an environment of inflationary costs, the Library will work closely with faculty to determine how best to support research and teaching for all the academic disciplines and programs at UC Berkeley.
For more information: UC Berkeley Strategic Academic Plan - Monitor and influence the future of scholarly communication.
The largest inflation has often occurred for publications which use materials created by our own faculty. Many librarians, faculty, and publishers themselves, are voicing the need to rethink the current model for scholarly communication.
For more information: Scholarly Communication - Pursue cooperative agreements that serve campus priorities.
Given the explosion of information, and the rise in publishing costs, it is not possible for any given institution to own everything that its community needs. We already participate very successfully in several resource sharing and cooperative collection programs, and we need to expand this strategy into new program areas. In this way we will be able to focus our resources to build local collections that serve and complement similar initiatives at other campuses — making all materials mutually available through excellent resource access and sharing programs.
