Introduction

Citation

Gorman, G. (2001), "Introduction", The Bottom Line, Vol. 14 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/bl.2001.17014caa.001

Introduction

International perspectives on library finance

This issue of The Bottom Line is devoted to international perspectives on library finance, and by this we mean "international" in two respects. First, the guest editor (from New Zealand) has selected papers from six countries – Australia and New Zealand, the USA and the UK, Kenya and India – as an indication that good writing and up-to-the-minute thinking on library finance are coming from every corner of the globe. Second, and more important, the topics covered in these six papers show that international concerns are really local concerns, and vice versa, when it comes to matters of finance in the information services sector.

The New Zealand and Australian articles, for instance, show that concerns in this part of the world are a reflection of European and North American concerns. Thus Jill Best, in "Supporting the public library entrepreneur", investigates critical success factors affecting the performance of New Zealand public library managers in generating extra revenue for their organisations. She identifies a number of ways in which the owning authority and the library manager/entrepreneur can increase the chances of success in raising revenue by non-traditional means – surely of value to public library managers in any country. Dr Peter Clayton's paper, "Managing the acquisitions budget: a practical perspective", focuses on four areas, all of which affect a library's bottom line in one way or another: fitting library materials expenditure into the parent organisation's budget cycle, including suggestions for taking advantage of any unspent institutional allocation at the end of the financial year; budget control, including managing commitment and expenditure; internal budget allocation, where it argues in favour of a flexible formula, developed to suit the needs of the organisation; and audit and stocktake. It argues that success in these areas provides the basis for successful collections management – again, something that applies across national boundaries.

Moving northwards to the USA, in "Outsourcing library technical services – what we think we know, and don't know" Professor James Sweetland maintains that much about this topic, including even the very definition, lacks anything approaching consensus in the literature. On more substantive issues, the picture is equally cloudy: available research shows that arguments in favour of outsourcing are based on supposed cost and time savings, while opposition tends to emphasise quality issues. Evidence as to whether outsourcing in general in fact saves money or time tends to be spotty, while there is some data supporting concerns about a decline of quality in many outsourcing projects.

Across the Atlantic, Stephen Roberts ("Trends and developments in financial management of collections in academic and research libraries") reviews a number of financial models for collection development. He maintains that digital library collections and hybrid library developments are the key influences on the future shape of financial models. A theoretical analysis suggests a need to move towards user access funding models and away from the traditional collection grant allocation model.

And so to Africa, where Stephen Mutula describes, in "Financing public universities in eastern and southern Africa", how public universities in the region have depended largely on grants from national governments for most of their recurrent and capital budgets. In the last decade, however, there has been pressure on public universities in the region to cut back on their budgets as a result of declining government grants occasioned largely by political and economic structural changes. The universities are responding by putting in place a wide range of programmes to generate their own income to augment the dwindling allocation from national governments. Mutula situates this discussion in an environment of rapid technological development, and refers to implications for information services.

Finally, from India the article by Malhan, "Financial needs and problems of university and research laboratory libraries in India", confirms Mutula's arguments from another continent, showing that university and research libraries in India are facing similar challenges to libraries in Africa. Due to lack of funds, Indian libraries are finding difficulties not only in modernising and restructuring their work operations but also in maintaining traditional services to their users.

International perspectives on common problems, but not always common solutions – this message emerges clearly from the six papers. But underlying the varied responses are common themes, common anxieties and common approaches to problem solving. Only the specific details differ. This is a strong message to all managers and should encourage greater recognition across geographic and developmental boundaries that we are all suffering from similar problems and looking for similar answers.

As Guest Editor, it has been a pleasure to work with a cadre of such conscientious and dedicated authors. I trust that our readers will derive as much insight from the papers as I have.

Gary GormanGuest Editor</>