1. Allocation Formula Considerations
Supply
Demand
Cost

2. Common allocation Factors
Number of students (grad/undergrad)
Number of courses (grad/undergrad)
Or Number of credits (grad/undergrad)
Number of faculty
Cost of acquiring materials
Use (issue: not discipline specific)
Factors may be weighted to reflect institutional values

3. Other Factors Accreditation requirement New programs
Increased or changing emphases
How well previous year’s allocation met needs
Formats
LC classes shared by multiple departments
(collection development profiles)

4. Other Factors Ability to modify formula as needed
% of University budget/institutional priority (PBA)can be on department or program level
Some institutions allocation by subject areas: humanities, sciences, social science, technology, professional programs
Some assign interdisciplinary formats----databases or journals to the library general fund

5. Test Effectiveness Minor changes can make unexpected results
Impact on reduced allocation could go below level needed to sustain subscriptions or packages
Things not adequately covered by departmental allocation(for example, allocation would not cover journals in Library’s budget)

6. Additional Considerations
Document decision process
Source of data
Any special allocations for new programs, (one time or recurring) etc
Factors that are weighted—(Cross says that weighting factors replaces objectivity with subjectivity)
Cross, R. L (2011). Budget allocation formulas: magic or illusion? The Bottom Line: Managing Library Finances. 24 (1), 63-67

7. Additional Considerations
Big ticket items
Special buying opportunities
PBA keeps reflects changing priorities in a single factor
Interlibrary loan costs
Inflation

8. Subcommittee Meetings
Established factors that will be weighted
(with input from the library faculty)
Assigned weights to the factors
Considered weighting graduate students by credit hours and/or by FTES
Experimented with hypothetical data to see impact of the weighted factors