ABSTRACT
The costs of library materials have soared over the past several years. Between inflation, currency fluctuations, and the development of new formats for information identification and retrieval, libraries and their home institutions have been sorely tested trying to maintain current programs, much less support new programs or initiatives. The need for a new budgeting approach, agreed to by all parties participating in the budget allocation process, is underscored by the findings of the recently published Mellon Study on University Libraries and Scholarly Communication. The study found that “When we compare increases in the average price of hardcover books and the average price of periodicals subscriptions, we find that between 1963 and 1970 the respective price indexes increased by comparable rates. Over these seven years the prices of these types of publications also increased roughly in line with the overall price index for all goods and services.” The report continues, “Beginning in 1970, however, the pattern changed profoundly. While the price of books continued to increase at about the same rate as the GNP… until about 1978, the price index for periodicals began to increase much more rapidly and to diverge sharply from the index for books and the overall index. This was precisely the 76decade when a great many new journals were founded, and there are reasons to believe that the proliferation of specialized journals had a marked effect on the prices of periodicals.” 1 Additional confirmation of this cost pattern was provided by the Association of Research Libraries in March 1993. ARL reported that based on members’ reported expenditure data during the 1982-1992 decade non-serial materials increased at a rate of slightly over 30 percent in contrast to serials which increased at a rate 67% higher than the CPL 2
