College and Research Libraries VIRGIL F. MASSMAN and KELLY PATTERSON A Minimum Budget for Current Acquisitions Since the ACRL "Standards for College Librariel' are at best a ques- tionable guide in budget preparation, the writers attempted to arrive at a more objective formula for a basic budget for current acquisitions. The ar.ticle proposes a minimum figure for books, based on an exami- nation of reviews in seventy-one professional journals. FOR MANY YEARS library administrators and acquisitions librarians have been concerned about arriving at basic cost figures for book budgets. In preparing the budget the fiscal manager can find all kinds of advice about preparing the budget early, comparing his library with similar institutions (which are prob- ably as inadequate as his own), con- sidering the educational goals of the institution, etc. The administrator can find little guidance, however, on actual costs in the area of acquisitions. The 1959 ACRL "Standards for Col- lege Libraries'' skirt the central issues of collection size and book budget. The "standard" of 50,000 volumes for up to 600 students and 10,000 additional vol- umes for every additional 200 students is admittedly ''based upon observation of the development of college libraries."1 Rather than actually setting standards, this document describes the less primi- tive existing practices and sanctions them with a "this-is-about-the-best-we- 1 American Library and Book Trade Annual, 1961 (New York, 1960), p. 121. Mr. Massman is Director of Libraries and Miss Patterson is former Acquisitions Librarian at the University of South Da- kota. can-hope-for" implication. Disregarding for the moment any greater range of course offerings at the larger institu- tions, one can only conclude that the undergraduate in a college of 600 stu- dents needs access to only half as much of the printed records of mankind as does the undergraduate at a college of 1,600 students, for this is what the Standards say-unless one assumes that those additional 50,000 volumes are all duplicate copies, which is hardly likely. The argument has always been that the student in the smaller school is not really deprived, because he has access to the better half-the "best" books. If that is the case, however, and if the argument is a valid one, then why should the li- brary with 1,600 students be cluttered up with an extra 50,000 unnecessary "worse" books? The ''best book" theory as it has been applied to library development is an in- trinsic contradiction which is completely inimical to the idea of presenting all points of view on significant social is- sues. Take two current problems, the war in Vietnam and the racial question. If the librarian selects only the ''best books," can he really satisfy the need to represent all points of view? Will the librarian select the best books accord- / 83 84 I College & Research Libraries • March 1970 ing to his own judgment, the judgment of reviewers, or the judgment of the users? Furthermore, in some cases the worst book on a controversial issue may be more enlightening than the best book, simply because the worst book (using the term "worst book" to identify the one which is obviously and unas4amed- ly biased) may give special insights be- cause it represents the distortions which can result from carrying a bias to its logical (or illogical) conclusion. In or- der to arrive at a sensible evaluation of an issue, the reader ( and the society ) must examine the values and deficien- cies of the views supporting both the extreme left and the extreme right as well as those which are apparently more objective. Particularly in an academic library, the serious student must have access to all possible opinions, interpre- tations, ideas, and theories , whether these relate to current issues , the na- ture of matter, the theories of oral in- terpretation, or whatever. An academic library's holdings can be determined only by the quantity and range of the materials being published which are relevant to the academic pro- grams it is supporting, not by the tra- ditional number-of-students criterion. Thus the library of any institution, re- gardless of size, with an undergraduate program in, for example, English history, must purchase all important books be- ing published on English history which would be appropriate for undergraduate students. An institution supporting an M.A. or Ph.D. program must purchase a much greater wealth of materials. To say that a student in a college of 600 students needs only half as many books as the student in an institution of 1,600, as the Standards do, is to put ACRL's blessing on a textbook-reserve collection type of education for the student in the small college. The only relevant reality is the reality of the number and qual- ity of books being produced. Naturally the college with a larger number of students will need more du- plicate copies, and it may also have a greater variety of programs. However, course for course and major for major there is no difference in the number of separate titles needed by any institution. Obviously the above argument also leads to a questioning of the proposition that the book budget should be allocated according to a formula based on the nu1nber of faculty members and majors in a particular discipline. If a depart- ment of history says that it will not teach Asian or African or Greek or Black or constitutional or social history, and if it says further that those aspects of history are not worth teaching nor worth studying, then the library can and should exclude books in those areas which are specifically interdicted. How- ever, unless specific areas of knowledge are intentionally excepted, ten students majoring in a subject area will need ac- cess to the same quantity of sources as one hundred students. At the same time certain · areas of knowledge need to be considered in selection simply because the clientele will be interested. Many colleges do not offer courses in medicine or religion, for example, but these insti- tutions will still need some books in these areas. To arrive at a more objective and ap- propriate means of determining mini- mum standards, the writers carefully ex- amined all the reviews printed during 1967 in seventy-one professional jour- nals covering the disciplines usually found in undergraduate curricula. The initial list of journals was selected by the writers who then sought recommen- dations from the entire faculty. (See Appendix, p. 87.) The n1ajor objective of the project was to determine the estimated annual cost to an academic library of keeping up with worthwhile current publications in the various disciplines. Retrospective purchasing was not considered, nor was purchasing of basic reference works such Minimum Budget for Current Acquisitions / 85 as encyclopedias, almanacs, irregular se- rials and annuals, popular best sellers, and fiction. Books reviewed were classi- fied according to subject (more or less following broad Dewey classes) and ap- propriateness for an undergraduate li- brary. Introductory textbooks and books which were of an ephemeral or elemen- tary nature were omitted, even though they appeared in the reviewing media. Author, title, price, subject, source of publication, and journal in which re- viewed were key punched for computer processing to determine the cost and number of books in each subject. An ideal budget for an individual library . can be constructed according to the aca- demic programs it is supporting, remem- bering that additional allowances must be made for categories of publications not included in this study. In classifying reviewed books in a spe- cific field as necessary for an under- graduate library, the presence of some institutional c-ourse work on the under- graduate level was assumed. So far as classification by subject is concerned, it must be recognized that this sometimes was of necessity arbi- trary. Interdisciplinary works were placed either in a broad general class or into the most likely subject covered. Therefore, when considering the num- ber and cost of books in any one particu- lar field , it must be remembered that many books in certain other areas may also b e relevant. Obvious examples are sociology, psychology and education, fields whose literatures are interdepend- ent. An institution with a drama de- partment would certainly need works classi:6ed as technical theatre and would also need many of those classi:6ed in the literatures, including dramatic liter- ature. A total of 6,892 books which received favorable reviews were classified. After elimination of duplications, 5,771 sepa- rate titles were found to have been treated, 3,195 of which were of under- graduate significance. These fell into subject classifications as indicated in the Appendix, p. 87. An undergraduate li- brary buying in all categories would ac- quire these 3,195 books, at a cost of $26,178.69. It must be emphasized, of course, that these figures are based on book production as reviewed in seventy- one journals. It does not include books which were not treated in these jour- nals nor titles reviewed by these jour- nals before or after 1967. While the writers have not done a detailed study of the question, they esti- mate that the minimum expenditure for continuations would add at least an- other $3,250. This would include new editions of encyclopedias on a regular basis, encyclopedia yearbooks, annuals such as "The Year's Work in . . ." or "Advances in ... ," and standard works as Books in Print, the World Almanac, Statistical Abstract, the M LA I nterna- tional Bibliography, etc. Furthermore, the list of books reviewed by the schol- arly journals included only a small pet- centage of the titles which were on the annual best seller list. This means that the library will have to spend an addi- tional sum for "popular" literature and current fiction , because the academic community needs these as well as the more scholarly works. Based on an examination of reviews in seventy-one professional journals, then, the total minimum budget for one copy of those current titles (in this case current means the year 1967) which are appropriate to any and all libraries serving undergraduates is $29,- 428.69. Obviously to arrive at a figure for 1968 or 1969, increases in book pro- duction and costs would have to be added to this basic figure. It is worth repeating that this figure does not make any allowance for any retrospective de- ficiencies, periodicals, newspapers, r e- prints, audiovisual materials, govern- ment documents, "popular works," re- placement items, duplicate copies, or 86 I College & Research Libraries • March 1970 materials which are mainly of local in- terest. Budgetary provision for these items must be in addition to the basic sum of $29,428.69. If the college does not offer courses in journalism, for ex- ample, the total might be reduced by $303.22. If the institution has no courses in agriculture or home economics, the budget might be reduced another $78.80, and so on. Once the curriculum is estab- lished, however' the academic library can readily determine how much money it will need as a minimum budget. A truly quality collection will need far more than that. No doubt many readers will raise the specter of local differences with regard to some aspects of the proposal under consideration. Because of our local situ- ation, because of the peculiar interests of our students and our faculty and our community, so the argument goes, our collection needs many special kinds of materials and does not need those which other libraries buy. This argument has been repeated so often that everyone accepts it without considering what it really means. Is there any college in the United States which does not need sub- stantial coverage on such questions as the war in Vietnam, racial problems, student unrest, Shakespeare, the Civil War, Russian history? If there is, is that institution really worthy of being called a college? Must or should the library re- sources supporting a course in American history really differ radically between colleges in the Midwest and the deep South? If they really differ substantially, is this not likely a result of biased selec- tion on the part of the faculty or the li- brarian? Is not the content of American history the same whether taught in South Dakota or Germany? Both stu- dents and faculty members across the country are far more homogeneous now because of the mobility of people in our society than they were thirty years ago, so does the old cliche still apply-if it ever did? Local differences, however, have meaning in one respect. Obviously the University of South Dakota will buy books, pamphlets, and periodicals which are relevant to the concerns of South Dakota and the region, and some of these would be of little immediate in- terest to students and faculty mem hers in Alaska. However, the point to be made is that this is an added cost fac- tor, not a substitution for materials which deal with national and world is- sues. The standards outlined in the ACRL "Standards for College Libraries" are no standards at all. Naturally the list of journals chosen for examination as well as the judgment of the reviews (and the readers of the reviews ) can readily be questioned. Nevertheless, the basic budget of $29,428.69 is at least sugges- tive because it reflects the only reality upon which standards can be based- book production and the existence of specific courses in the curriculum. If ACRL, exercising some authority as a sanctioning or accrediting agency, were to establish adequate minimum · standards and then were to insist that a library which fails to meet those stand- ards is incapable of supporting an ef- fective undergraduate program, and if standards for current purchasing were based on course offerings and book pro- duction, as this article suggests, the in- equities and deficiencies of academic library collections could to an extent be decreased. Surely this is a goal worth working toward. And even if ACRL's efforts had no impact on improving li- brary resources, ACRL could take pride in refusing to sanction mediocrity. Minimum Budget for Current Acquisitions I 81 APPENDIX REVIEWING jOURNALS CONSULTED ( 1967) Accounting Review American Anthropologist American Artist American Economic Review American Historical Review American Journal of Archeology American J oumal of Physics American Journal of Psychology American Literature American Musicological Society Journal American Political Science Review American Scientist American Sociological Review Analytical Chemistry Animal Behavior Annals Art in America Arts Magazine Astronomical Society of the Pacific Classical J oumal Classical World College & Research Libraries Comparative Literature Dance Magazine Economic J oumal Educational Leadership English Historical Review Ethics Geographical Review Germanic Review Hibbert J oumal Hispanic American Historical Review Hispanic Review Human Biology Isis Journal of American History Journal of Chemical Education Journal of English and Germanic Philology J oumal of Geology JOHPER Journal of Higher Education Journal of Marketing Journal of Political Economy J oumal of Religion J oumal of the Am. Chern. Soc. JAMA Journalism Quarterly Library Quarterly Mathematical Gazette Mind Modem Language Notes Music Library Association Notes NASSP Bulletin Personnel and Guidance Journal Philosophical Quarterly Philosophical Review Physics Review Political Studies Public Administration Review Quarterly Journal of Speech Quarterly Journal of Biology Review of English Studies Review of Metaphysics Romance Philology Rural Sociology Science Scripta Mathematica Sky and Telescope Slavic Review Teachers College Record Torrey Botanical Club Bulletin EsTIMATED ANNUAL CosT, To AN AcADEMIC LIBRARY, oF MAINTAINING CURRENT PUBLICATIONS Subject Agriculture Anthropology and Archeology Architecture Art Astronomy Biology Botany Business Chemistry Economics Education Engineering Geography Number of Titles 8 88 10 50 28 113 32 56 98 138 126 22 25 Cost $ 44.35 951.58 131.45 693.29 273.30 1,502.85 395.25 419.29 1,273.69 916.18 727.03 250.61 246.82 - - - - -------- 88 I College & Research Libraries • March 1970 Geology Graphic Arts History Mrican American Ancient Asian English European Subject General History and Exploration Latin American Home Economics Journalism Language and Literature (General Works) American English French German Greek Italian Latin Russian and Slavic Spanish and Relations Law Library Science Mathematics Medicine Music Paleontology Philosophy Photography Physical Education , Dance and Recreation Physics Political Science and Government, Theoretical and U.S . Political Science and Government, Foreign; Internation- al Relations Psychology Public Relations and Public Aqministration Religion Bible Christian Theology Judaic Social Work Sociology Speech Statistics Science in General Theatre Zoology Tatal Number of Titles 22 3 67 229 40 105 80 140 42 69 3 41 56 91 97 11 12 23 4 13 9 15 15 51 57 48 42 7 137 4 49 75 119 129 76 10 8 1 23 17 5 12 152 25 10 76 42 41 3,195 Cost $ 252.45 30.00 499.68 1,684.59 310.66 740.03 582.21 1,039.75 380.87 508.73 34.45 303.22 389.77 611.46 662.12 76.07 95.95 120.02 37.73 72.85 62.70 115.74 114.02 470.53 505.36 419.58 367.55 59.48 994.04 35.40 285.77 830.19 694.63 832.17 597.28 •84.60 22.22 16.95 555.98 79.68 33.72 79.20 959.77 135.24 86.23 682.67 291.04 508.74 ' $26,178.69 Additional allocations must be considered in some instances due to apparent biases in certain reviewing journals concerning foreign publications and foreign language materials . ••