Allocating Library Acquisitions Budgets in an Era of Declining or Static Funding

Much has been written in the last half of the twentieth century about the traditional theories and strategies of allocating academic library materials budgets. This paper will provide an overview of the major methods that have evolved in the last 50 years and examine their rationales. Illustrations of the various points made in the paper will involve statistical data gathered from the University of Tennessee Library (see Table 1). An alternate allocation plan will be proposed as a first step to revise former allocation priorities toward more emphasis on user needs. The proposal offers a particularly useful tool when purchasing power declines and all methods of reducing budget allocations seem unattractive.