2015 Charleston Library Conference

Registration Cost: $110

This practical workshop is geared toward librarians who are looking for ways to optimize their limited collection development budgets and/or are revisiting their allocation procedures with an eye toward distributing funds more equitably to each subject area.

Bailey and Creibaum will address the process of creating a weighted allocation formula similar to the one used at Arkansas State University and will introduce attendees to the skills and resources used in managing their own Excel spreadsheet-based allocation formula.

The use of weights applied to each factor is a central feature of this formula. Factors can include the number of degrees awarded in each program, departmental semester credit hour production, the number of faculty in each department, and the average cost of resources in each discipline, among others.

Participants who bring their tablets or laptops will be able to download and work with a fully functioning “lite” version of the Excel formula during the session.

The presenters will demonstrate how the basic formula can be modified to utilize the criteria relevant to each institution. Real-time examples will be used to show how seemingly small changes in the formula can produce major changes in results.