Perception Matters

Richers, Katherine

 

Powers, B. (2016). Perception matters: What message are we sending to faculty with departmental book allocations? Collection Management, 41(4), 221-227. doi: 10.1080/01462679.2016.1242443

 

Summary:
In this article, the author focuses on how the faculty of a university can help build a collection as well as how changing budget allotments can bring libraries more in line with their modern-day purposes. Do budgets accurately reflect types of materials in the library? Some have tried to shift the focus of the budget from acquisitions to access.  She looks at the possibility of eliminating departmental budget allocations, and notes how the college where she worked did not adequately reach out to faculty on the subject. The library sent out emails about the book collection and did not explore anything different for other collections. Librarians and faculty at her college rarely went over budget so rethinking the allocations would not have been too problematic. In 2016, the college finally restructured their budget to encourage faculty to work with librarians to develop subject-based collections in different formats.

 

Evaluation:
All the budget politics were confusing, but I understood it. Thinking back to the Sammonds and Housewright article I posted, I think physical books are too closely associated with libraries. While I am a great fan of books and I believe that we should have analog materials, the prevalence of the internet and electronic formats demands differ materials. The college’s library should have emailed the faculty about more options besides the book budget.