Library Collection Budget Assessment: Library Collection Budget Overview

Answer: IPEDS peer institutions for the Colorado School of Mines are identified as:

• California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, CA)
• Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus (Atlanta, GA)
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA)
• Michigan Technological University (Houghton, MI)
• Missouri University of Science and Technology (Rolla, MO)
• New Jersey Institute of Technology (Newark, NJ)
• New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (Socorro, NM)
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, NY)
• South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (Rapid City, SD)
• Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Worcester, MA)

Answer: In summary, the CPI projected based on national data are as follows:

• 5.6% overall projected % increase in 2018 for university libraries for titles indexed in EBSCO Academc Search Complete
• 5.6% overall projected % increase in 2018 for science periodicals in Clarivate Analytics
• Individual subject areas relevant to Mines are projected to increase: 6% for engineering; 7% for geology; 4% for math/computer science

• The anticipated inflation rates for FY18 for the 10 most used Journals are:
  • Science - 4.9%
  • Geophysics - 5%
  • Journal of Membrane Science - 4%
  • Journal of the American Chemical Society - 4.5%
  • Journal of Power Sources - 4%
  • Materials Science and Engineering - 4%
  • Water Resources Research - 4%
  • Acta Materiala - 4%
  • Environmental Science and Technology - 4.5%

Note: Fortunately, most of these journals are provided through package, multi-year, subscriptions whose terms are negotiated through The Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries, and as such the anticipated increases are favorably controlled by the contract requirements. 

Answer:    The average annual % increase in the library’s materials budget over the past 10 years (2008 – 2018) is 3.58%. If the $60,000 budget increase in 2017 for an expanded IEEE subscription is removed, the 10-year average decreases to just 2.85%:

EBSCO publishes annual serials price projections on an annual basis. These projections include both STEM and non-STEM titles. Their projections for the past 10 years are:

The average projected 10-year inflation range is thus 5.5 – 7.5%, with a 6.5% overall average.

If the Arthur Lakes Library’s materials budget had increased by 6.5% over the past 10 years, the 2018 materials budget would be $2,170,113 ($399,123 and 22.5% higher). Note that this is close to the current materials budget of Rensselaer.

Summary: The requested 7% inflation factor for 2018-2019 is modest and appropriate given both historical and recent serials inflation. The purchasing power of the library has steadily declined over the past 10 years due to materials inflation outpacing growth of the library’s materials budget allocation.

Answer: Yes. Library materials inflation is a broadly recognized challenge in academia.

The following chart from the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) provides visual evidence of the annual price pressures for both monographs (books) and serials (journals) between 1986-2011