collection development and shrinking budgets

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Journal of Hospital Librarianship

ISSN: 1532-3269 (Print) 1532-3277 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/whos20

Collection Development and Shrinking Budgets

Mary Pat Harnegie

To cite this article:Mary Pat Harnegie (2011) Collection Development and Shrinking Budgets,Journal of Hospital Librarianship, 11:1, 1-7, DOI: 10.1080/15323269.2011.537984

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15323269.2011.537984

Published online: 02 Feb 2011.

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Journal of Hospital Librarianship, 11:17, 2011Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLCISSN: 1532-3269 print/1532-3277 onlineDOI: 10.1080/15323269.2011.537984

Collection Development and Shrinking Budgets

MARY PAT HARNEGIECleveland Clinic Alumni Library, Cleveland, Ohio, USA; and South Pointe

Medical Library, Warrensville Heights, Ohio, USA

This article explores low-cost opportunities used at the Cleveland

Clinic Alumni Library to maximize print and audiovi-

sual collection development during times of tight budgets.The library started with three measurable strategies: solic-

iting institutional-authored/edited donations, soliciting new

educational technology media from appropriate departments,

and developing improved publisher negotiations. The cost savings

were significant. Four additional strategies have also resulted in

increased efficiencies and wonderful public relations between its

department and other hospital departments.

KEYWORDS budget, collection development, hospital libraries,

public relations

INTRODUCTION

Tough economic times have left libraries with budget gaps caused by fund-ing shortfalls. Libraries have seen their book budgets cut by as much as 40%(1, 2). Libraries have been asked to do more with less (3). In responseto the uncertainty of the economic downturn in 2008, our librarys budget

for print books was unexpectedly reduced by 30%; the much smaller audio-visual budget was untouched. At the time, we did not know that this wasa temporary reduction and that additional funds would be made availablea year later. When faced with the reduced budget, our challenge was todetermine how best to keep our collections intact from that point forward.

Our library devised strategies that have resulted in very encouragingresults for our collection management efforts. In addition, our strategies

Received 17 March 2010; accepted 20 June 2010.Address correspondence to Mary Pat Harnegie, Medical Librarian, South Pointe Medical

Library, 20000 Harvard Rd., Warrington Heights, OH 44122, USA. E-mail: [email protected]

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2 M. P. Harnegie

strengthened relationships with some significant stakeholders, who areactively supporting and promoting the library. For example, the librarysinstitutional-author repository and historical book collection are now treatedas a special collection and have moved to their own location separate from

the circulating books. This action actively highlights our institutional authorsand promotes another portion of our mission to preserve institutionallyauthored material.

The library identified low-cost opportunities to help supplement thegrowth of the collection. The first three areas identified were solicitinginstitutional-authors and editors donations, soliciting new educational tech-nology media from appropriate departments, and developing improvedpublisher negotiations. Results were recorded and the savings weremeasured.

METHODS

Strategy IDonations from Institutional Authors

The library actively solicits newly published works from institutional authors.Our definition of editors or authors is limited to the names on the coveror the title page of the book. A chapter author is not considered anauthor/editor for this purpose because the individual is a contributor, notthe person responsible for the work. The Policy Manual for Cleveland ClinicProfessional Staff (often called faculty or attending physicians at other insti-

tutions) specifies that Clinic Professional Staff are to donate a copy of theirwork to the library and that the library does not purchase these books.In fact, authors are advised to write into their publishing contract that abook be provided by the publisher for donation to the library. Library staffis aware of this policy and will remind Cleveland Clinic authors that thelibrarys collection development policy does not include the option to buytheir books . . . and would they be interested in donating a copy? This pol-icy has been in place for many years, and often the authors donate a copy

without solicitation.The rationale behind this decision is to recognize the significant

resources provided by the library to support the publication efforts ofCleveland Clinic Professional Staff. For example, the library absorbs thecost for all library resources and research assistance for the entire insti-tution, without charge-backs. Our institution-approved vendor, MatthewsMedical Books, has a contributing-author feature built into their approvalplan that automatically alerts the acquisitions librarian to any institutionalauthor. Author alerts are also set up in various databases and websites.The alerts search criteria involve variations of institutional name and keyelements of the primary location address. These sources are continuouslymonitored, and the majority of Cleveland Clinicaffiliated authors/editors

are identified using these methods.


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Shrinking Budgets 3

After the author/editors are identified, the acquisitions librarian writesthe author congratulating him/her on the publication of the work and asksif they would please donate a copy to the library. The title, author, dateof request and receipt are recorded on an Excel spread sheet. A thank-you

note is sent to the author/editor upon receipt of the book.

Strategy IISupport from Information Technology

The library has had a wonderful relationship with the Clinics IT TechnologyTraining department. IT Technology Training has repeatedly donated instruc-tional and training material for the institutions authorized institutionalsoftware. IT still supports Microsoft Office 2003 as the official version forour institution. Since the release of Microsoft Office 2007, the library hasreceived many requests for instructional material on this newer version. Inresponse, the library contacted IT Technology to ask for their help in evalu-ating and donating an instructional CD-ROM for Microsoft Office 2007. Theyfound a CD-ROM series including Microsoft Office 2000, 2003, and 2007 and

were pleased to donate it to the library.

Strategy IIIWorking with Publishers and Vendors

Our audiovisual collection suffered from neglect after the vacant audiovisuallibrarian position was not filled. After identifying outdated materials in board

review areas and the need for acquiring the latest Medical Knowledge Self-Assessment Program (MKSAP) training materials, the librarians negotiatedwith publishers and vendors to acquire materials at a reduced price. Inaddition, the librarians asked Cleveland Clinic Professional Staff who haveproduced board review material to intercede with the publisher for reducedpricing of the work.

Our Professional Staff members contribute so much material to one CME(Continuing Medical Education) vendor that the vendor voluntarily suppliesa free subscription to the library in eight medical specialties that come on a

weekly/biweekly basis. These CD-ROM materials are in constant use.

RESULTS

The library has spent no money, except in staff salary and time. Thelibrary has mined in its own mine, reaching out to the institutionsown researchers and clinicians and recognizing their significant work andachievement. Our IT department has provided us with valuable educationaltechnology support and materials. Recently the Education Institute chair-

man added the power of his office and began directly soliciting Cleveland


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4 M. P. Harnegie

TABLE 1 Donations by Authors

YearNo. of

requestsNo. of single-copy

donations No. of double donationsValue ofdonations

2004 60 23 13 $5045

2005 40 11 7 $37082006 39 10 10 $45652007 55 12 19 $75782008 56 16 23 $7542Total $28,438

Clinic authors/editors for their donations, on our behalf. We are seeing earlyresults that this is pumping up our donation numbers. Information aboutthe donated works is publicized on the electronic kiosk in the library on

a bimonthly basis. Through asking Professional Staff for help, their cooper-ation makes them an effective stakeholder in the matters of library supportand programming. Win-Win situation this far!

From 2004 to 2008, the library identified 55 to 60 works per year, whichhave been written by Cleveland Clinic authors. In that 5-year period, $28,438

worth of books was donated. The donated materials yielded a 50% to 60%return on the requested institutional-authored books (Table 1).

The IT Technology Training donation of the Microsoft Office suite how-to CD-ROM set was a $150 value. Beside the monetary value, their expertknowledge found a resource that could meet all the educational needs of our

users, who have the earlier 19972003 editions and the newer 2007 edition.Our audiovisual collection was updated in two board review areas,

newer MKSAP training materials were acquired, and subscriptions to eightmedical specialties continued. With a little bit of help from our friends, $8400

worth of audiovisual materials were acquired for $2000. In total, the libraryreceived $34,988 over 5 years in supplemental print and media through theseprocesses.

MISCELLANEOUS OTHER STRATEGIES

Our institution has experienced a lot of growth and transition in the pastfew years. During that growth cycle, many departments have moved tonew quarters that no longer have room for their departmental libraries andeducational resources. Some of these relocating departments have asked thelibrary staff for help to evaluate what materials should be discarded and

what materials could be donated to the library. Usually, the library had avery short window of time (often no more than 2 to 3 days) to work withthe department to make decisions about materials. Librarians visited the

department to review the materials for discard or donation with departmental


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staff and transported any desirable materials back to the library for furtherevaluation.

We benefit from this process in the following ways:

Many of the donated materials are older materials with institutionalauthors, which might be hard to find. These items become part of ourinstitutional-author repository.

Coming from a departmental collection, these are materials that havebeen deemed important by that staffan indication that they need asecond look by the library. Often these are materials that are highly spe-cialized and their initial purchase would not have been possible basedon the librarys collection development policy. Many of the items havebeen added to the librarys collection, making the material more widelyavailable and accessible to others.

Making a house call to the departments location promotes good willbetween the library and the department. Library staff can use this specialtime with department members to explore future reference and teachingopportunities.

It did not cost the library anything but staff time.

We have over 600 residents and fellows rotating in and out in June.Many do not want to take their books with them. We tell them, You donthave to take them with you, we can take them for you! The same applies to

retiring and relocating Professional Staff. The Cleveland Clinic Alumni Libraryactively solicits donations from retiring/relocating staff annually through themonthly Memo to Staff in the May or June newsletter.

The benefits of this procedure are the following:

They have to box up their books and take them somewhere. By takingthem to the library, they have no shipping cost, no sore backs, and lessstuff to contend with when they get to their new location.

Retiring physicians are relieved to know their treasured books are going

to a place where they will be appreciated and used. We receive copies of board review books, United States Medical LicensingExamination (USMLE) reviews, and allied health certification reviews. Weadd these materials to our circulating collection.These are a great contribution and are heavily used by our patrons andmembers of our library consortium. We can keep our board review booksupdated with little or no cost.

In all the above instances, we always let the donor know that if the librarydoes not use the book, they have the right to have items returned to them.Otherwise we will put it on our ongoing book sale table. No one has ever

requested their donated items to be returned. We also can give them a


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6 M. P. Harnegie

receipt for the books for tax purpose; however, a value is not assigned tothe donation.

Another strategy is to get to know your mailroom staff! Sometimes the

mailroom receives undeliverable and unreturnable materials. If items cannotbe forwarded or returned, we have the option of adding the materials to thelibrary, or to a library consortium partner. In addition, publishers sometimesrandomly send books to our institution addressed to the book review editor.Once the book is reviewed, we ask the reviewer to forward the item to thelibrary for inclusion in the collection. If no reviewer can be identified, thepublisher will often allow the library to keep the book.

Last, librarians at our main campus and regional hospital libraries coop-erate by sharing resources when doing collection evaluation. For example,one of the regional hospital librarians may determine that a book in their

collection is better suited to the collection at the main campusand viceversathe main campus library may have duplicate copies of a title thatwould be useful at the regional hospital. This collaboration of collec-tion building sustains both hospital libraries collections with no monetaryoutlay (4).

The collaboration between librarians in the Cleveland Clinic HealthSystem continues to evolve. For example, the nine regional hospitalsare beginning to specialize in specific areas such as geriatric psychiatry,pain management, and orthopedic services, whereas general obstetrics hasmoved from main campus to the regional hospitals. As each hospital changesits areas of specialization, the libraries collections need to grow in order tosupport these new specialties. To foster this growth, the acquisitions librarianat main campus is sharing all donations with the regional hospital librarians.The regional hospital librarians can then acquire any donated item that isappropriate for their collection at no cost. Boxes of relevant materials havebeen shared using this strategy between our regional hospital libraries andmain campus. Since our mailroom ships materials to our regional hospitalsdaily, these resources arrive quickly and at no cost to either library.

CONCLUSION

All these strategies have resulted in increased efficiencies, a better use ofour book resources, and wonderful public relations between our library andother hospital departments. Many of these strategies are easy to implementand require no monetary outlay, but they do require staff time and exper-tise. The benefits are substantial not only from the cost savings aspect, butalso in the generation of good will between the library and the rest of theinstitution and the cultivation of new library supporters and stakeholders.

These strategies may seem very mundane, but they have proven to be a


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powerful tool to support collection development at this institution in timesof a shrinking budget.

REFERENCES1. Millman S. Researchers at U. of Hawaii-Manoa bemoan big cut in book

purchases. Chron Higher Educ. 2007;53:A28.2. Swanson K. (2009). Letter to Yale science faculty regarding the library collec-

tions budget. http://www.library.yale.edu/CDC/budget/cdc_budget.html (24 Jan2010).

3. Funk M. (2009). Collection development in times of shrinking budgets.http://leavesamark.workpress.com (1 Oct 2009).

4. Marcum JW. Sustainable library imperative collection building barter: a proposal.Bottom Line: Managing Library Finances. 2008;21:4951.

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