Here is the 2015/16 library materials budget as supported by the Senate Library Committee at its June 8th 2015 meeting, and modified to reflect support from the University Administration for the USD exchange rate pressures.
As part of the University’s budget setting process the library received a base budget lift to the materials budget of $174,000 for 2015/16. The library recognizes the generosity of the University towards the Library but unfortunately the lift was well below the requested increase to support 4% inflation ($324K) plus $50K for ongoing initiatives.
In order to address many years of receiving increases to the budget that have not keep up with inflation rates of library materials, a Collections Cost Reduction process is taking place this fiscal year. After consultation with the SFU community, cancellations (databases, serials and periodicals) totaling approximately $300K have already been made and are reflected in the budget.
In consultation with SFU Finance the budget has been set using a US/Canadian exchange rate of 1.27. With over 80% of the budget invoiced in USD it was evident that the high exchange rate would reduce our purchasing power such that many more cancellations and reductions would need to be made. The Library worked with SFU Finance to explain the situation to the University Administration. We are very grateful that the Administration has agreed to minimize the materials budget’s exposure to fluctuations in the US exchange rate by covering the increased costs due to the exchange rate.
Please note the following additional points about this budget:
- Serial allocations (includes Periodicals, Serials & Databases) have been set based on increases of 4% over the previous year’s expenditures, and with support for the USD/CAD exchange of 1.27, corrected for format changes, new subscription, cancellations, and other changes.
- Monograph allocations have been based on last year’s allocation with support for 4% inflation and support for the USD/CAD exchange rate of 1.27. Some funds may also have corrections to account for new serials, or, cancelled/ceased serials.
An explanation of the fund codes used in the budget appears below. Not all funds will have all the following codes:
Books – Approvals (fund codes ending in a)
Purchases received (print & ebooks) based on subject profiles set up with our major book vendor. Primary subjects are covered by these approvals profiles. Approximately 34% of all book titles purchased come in on Approval.
Books - Forms (fund codes ending in f)
Purchases made (print & ebooks) based on notifications from our major book vendor reflecting secondary subject profiles. Approximately 24% of all book titles are purchased as a result of this alerting program.
Books – Discretionary (fund codes ending in d)
Purchases (print & ebooks) from information provided by faculty and students, or selected directly by the liaison librarian without input from our major book vendor. Books for Reserves are also purchased out of these funds. Depending on the subject area, mainly secondary subjects are covered by discretionary purchases. This method accounts for 42% of purchases on book funds.
Periodicals (fund codes ending in p)
Periodicals cover the journals purchased by the Library, both print and electronic.
Serials (fund codes ending in s)
Serials cover other regularly purchased items that are bought from year to year. These consist of yearbooks, annuals, handbooks, monographic series on standing order, etc.
Databases (fund codes ending in w)
Databases cover full-text databases, datasets, online indexes, etc. that are purchased each year. Subject based databases are covered in the departmental budgets and more general databases are purchased out of general funds.