ABSTRACT
The question of the library budget cannot be discussed and dissected enough because it is the document, more than any other that controls and shapes the development of not only each individual library or group of libraries but ultimately the profession. Unfortunately, the reference department is one of the areas most difficult to explain to a nonlibrary person who often controls the library purse strings. On one hand, this is the department usually housing the most expensive part of the collection and it is the area of the library, in most places where most of the personnel costs are concentrated. If the library departments are compared, the reference budget is a sizable chunk.
