The Economics Of Libraries

Libraries are included in the widely accepted definition of Cultural and Creative Industries, together with heritage, performing arts, museums, visual arts, and archives, and they play an important role in the creative value chain. The Economics of Libraries highlights the economic importance of the library sector. Providing an accessible and concise expert overview of the most important economic features and diversified functions of libraries, the authors also summarise the challenges and opportunities deriving from digital technologies, the management of cultural infrastructures, and audience development. This unique short-form book fills a longstanding gap in our understanding of the demand and supply of library services. This book will be of interest to researchers and scholars in the fields of economics and the creative and cultural industries. It also provides useful insights for students and lecturers, as well as topics of discussion for professionals.

Economic Considerations for Libraries, Archives and Museums provides insight into the economics of collaboration across Libraries, Archives, and Museums (LAMs) and cultural heritage funding. Drawing together a series of global reflections on the past, present and future of cross-sector approaches to preserving and promoting cultural heritage, this volume examines the economic prospects of LAMs from a variety of facets. Divided into five sections, the book covers the five most important areas in the development and sustainability of collaborative LAM projects: the digital environment; collaborative models; education; funding issues; and alternate sources of funding. Responding directly to the issue of a lack of adequate funding for maintaining and providing access to cultural heritage resources globally, the book argues that cultural heritage institutions must seek creative methods for funding and collaboration at all levels to achieve shared goals. Economic Considerations for Libraries, Archives and Museums will be of interest to all those engaged in the study of library and information science, archival studies, museum studies and digital preservation. Administrators and practitioners will also find much to interest them within the pages of the book.

In this book, first published in 1998, world-renowned experts on the subject of contemporary librarianship analyse the problems associated with coping with an ever-expanding knowledge base, given their current economic constraints and budgets. It examines challenging marketplace solutions to problems in the economics of information; economic modelling of investments in information resources at academic institutions; the economics of resource sharing, consortia, and document delivery; and measuring the costs and benefits of distance learning.

The Economics of Access Versus Ownership offers library professionals a model economic analysis of providing access to journal articles through interlibrary loan as compared to library subscriptions to the journals. This model enables library directors to do an economic analysis of interlibrary loan and collection development in their own libraries and to then make cost-efficient decisions about the use of these services. This practical book’s analysis and conclusions are based on 1994/95 academic year research conducted by the State University of New York libraries at Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, and Stony Brook. The research determined the costs and benefits of high-priced, low-use scholarly journals, focusing on journals in the mathematics and sciences that historically have high prices, low levels of use, and increasing rates of price escalation. The libraries’financial costs of access by interlibrary loan versus journal subscriptions was calculated and, using this information, a set of decision rules was established. Library directors and interlibrary loan/collection development heads can use this set of decision rules to determine, based on the level of use and subscription price, whether they should provide access to journal articles via interlibrary loan or journal subscriptions. The research findings presented in The Economics of Access Versus Ownership are significant to library professionals as journal subscription prices escalate and commercial document delivery services, consortium agreements, and interlibrary loan hardware and software proliferate. Contributors explore important factors necessary to understanding the economics of access. They encourage readers to consider the following when choosing between journal subscriptions and interlibrary loan: financial costs fixed and marginal costs decision rules which determine the most economically efficient method of access the use of a library consortium and joint collection development within the consortium as an economically efficient method of access added benefits of a library consortium Information found in The Economics of Access Versus Ownership makes it a useful guide for university and college library directors, interlibrary loan department heads, and collection development heads trying to choose the most economically sound, both for their libraries and their patrons, form of access to journal articles.

Digital Library Economics covers key aspects of the management and development of the digital library from an economic viewpoint. The work is a collection of essays by leading international authorities and provides an overview of current and future positions with regard to the economics of digital library management and development. Key contextual aspects are described, providing a history of the growth of digital libraries, with special reference to financial issues, current and possible future economic models and costing methodologies and challenges, themes and issues in the field. Incorporates past developments, current good practice and future trends Written by recognized national and international authorities There is little else in the field: it fills a major gap in the literature