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Scholarly Resources: Overview of the Library"s Collections Budget

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Overview of the UC Berkeley Library collections budget

  • 54% is allocated to serials and other continuing resources. If Elsevier is included, we would typically pay about 58% of the collections budget to serials.

    • Of 120 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) members that shared fiscal year 2018-19 spending stats, the median for ongoing collection expenses was 85%.

    • Here’s are some peer comparisons:

      • Cornell 91%

      • Rutgers 88%

      • MIT 87%

      • Texas A&M 85%

      • UCSD 83%

      • UCI 82%

      • Penn State 80%

      • UBC 80%

      • UCD 79%

      • Michigan 71%

      • Columbia 69%

      • UCB 62%

      • UCLA 60%

      • Princeton 59%

      • Harvard 56%

      • Yale 43%

  • 30% is allocated to individual selectors and the Library subject divisions for discretionary/one-time purchasing, usually books, datasets, and some databases.

  • 6-7% is allocated to centralized group funds and fund operational costs (i.e. course reserves, binding, shipping, Interlibrary Loan)

  • 6-8% is comprised of endowments supporting various subjects, predominantly in the Arts, Bancroft, and the East Asian Library

Share of serials and discretionary funds allocated to subject divisions and selectors:

  • 25.4% to Arts & Humanities

  • 33.8% to Social Sciences

  • 22.7% to Engineering & Physical Sciences

  • 12.2% to Life & Health Sciences

  • 5.7% East Asian Library and Bancroft