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Presents a comparison between the two modes of information delivery and discusses the costs involved, along with their place in the library budget. Cost recovery has become a hot issue, but must be considered within the library’s mission. Considers various responses and their consequences, including the results of using commercial services to meet library goals. Offers a methodology for determining the library’s policy decisions. Legal and financial ramifications are included in this consideration. Recommends careful examination of goals and objectives in setting into place either procedure.

The task of the financial manager of a library is a formidable one. Wacht defines a financial manager as a person who manages the resources of an economic entity for the purposes of influencing the future outcome of its operations. The financial manager plays the major role in planning and measuring the organization's needs for funds, raising the necessary funds, and making certain that the funds acquired are properly employed. A financial manager must also estimate the future cash flow associated with individual projects, in addition to the funds necessary for the total operation of a library. Other duties include the evaluation of prospective new investments and programs on the organization's operations.

For many years, academic librarians worked in a fiscal environment of rapidly increasing budgets. Management of growth was the major problem. Today, though, most academic librarians face “steady‐state”—or stagnant—budgets. This situation, more pronounced in recent years, has been with us for more than a decade, a fact most librarians and university administrators have been slow to recognize. These budgets require new fiscal management techniques whose key words are cost containment, substitution, choice, and priorities.

The dominance of road transport, both on passenger and freight movements, has reached alarming levels in what concerns their negative environmental impacts as well as societal and economic costs. To reverse this trend, a technology-driven approach and a behavioral change attitude need to be pursued. Promising results have been reported in Europe in the reduction of vehicle ownership, due to the introduction of an alternative transport mode known as car sharing. This work evaluates the contribution of car sharing to sustainable transport, based both in a technological shift and a potential behavioral change.

The state of the art on car sharing and policies presents the effects of these systems and how they have been promoted. As those effects can vary according to the geographical area, the users profile, and service characteristics, a worldwide analysis on car sharing systems covering more than 400 cities was performed. Average service indicators were quantified and characterization variables were accounted to those cities’ urban areas. Considering those normalized values, the authors performed an analysis of the car sharing system in Lisbon (Portugal). An initial assessment was made to estimate its current energy and environmental impacts. This outcome was then compared with the environmental and economic effects of using alternative vehicle technologies in car sharing. The results obtained enable a discussion of the more important variables for the success of the system and, consequently, to choose what policy instruments can help car sharing to succeed.

The results of the existing car sharing schemes reveal the positive contribution of car sharing to fill a “mobility gap” in sustainable transport. It works as a complement to other sustainable transport options and it impacts positively both society and car-sharers in terms of mobility costs, environmental, and energy implications. These results are more significant if a technology shift to electric mobility is promoted. Within the case study in Lisbon, the adoption of electric mobility would allow decreases up to 47% and 65% in energy consumption and CO₂ emissions, respectively. Moreover, the present value economic analysis revealed that, these systems will only be economically viable after approximately 7 years. A sensitivity analysis to the economic model was performed showing that the variables having higher influence were cost-related variables (reducing the break-even timeframe from 36% to 57%), such as vehicle purchase cost, insurance, maintenance and tax costs, and fuel cost.

Car sharing systems generally present social benefits to society as it leads to the reduction of car ownership, with all the positive effects that has on a lower demand for parking space, less congestion, reduced local pollutants and emissions. If the technology used by car sharing vehicles shifts from conventional to another type of technology, the effects both for society and car sharers are even more appealing from a social point of view. In the particular case study approached in the chapter, given the small scale of the car sharing network and low usage patterns, the local results have a low social impact at the city scale. A larger promotion of the system either with a more aggressive marketing campaign targeting specific population niches (e.g., environmentally conscious people), larger vehicle and parking availability, or better integration with the city’s public transport system could foster the deployment of the system, similarly to other cities.

Overall, the results obtained from this research work quantify the contribution of car sharing to sustainable transport and highlights the positive effects of promoting a technological shift. These facts reinforce the need for public policies to support the integration of car sharing within the city’s solutions to promote a more sustainable mobility. The successful deployment of car sharing systems can be influenced by policies targeting features such as allocation of parking, the fees and complementarity with public transport, signage and markings, and marketing of social and environmental benefits.

This experiment investigated the causal links between injustice and interpersonal conflict. Previous research has suggested two possible explanations. One group of theorists has argued for a pragmatic model, whereby individuals engage in interpersonal conflict in order to maximize personal gain. Justice is, at most, a secondary consideration. Alternatively, others have suggested that perceived unfairness is a crucial element in conflict. The present study tested these two frameworks. As predicted, results were generally consistent with the justice model. However, the expression of conflict only took place when there was no opportunity for power restoration. Results are discussed in terms of the situation's impact on conflict behavior. Limitations of the present research design are noted.

While we are by now used to reading about the financial problems faced by libraries, most news arrives piecemeal, about one library or another, and we seldom put it all together. Having clipped items about libraries from the Hartford Courant for some months, I thought to take them out of the file and look them over. They spell out a serious and deteriorating situation.

In May and June, 1991, the College and University Library Association (CULA) conducted a quick mail survey on library cost containment and downsizing, focusing on changes between 1989–90 and 1990–91. Although the survey would not meet the rigorous demands of statistical accuracy, the responses should be of interest to most mid‐sized libraries. CULA members are academic libraries from comprehensive institutions with graduate programs. The fourteen resondents included public and private universities and technical institutes, from 11 states and two commonwealths.

This year Gaye Rizzo, the librarian of the Wilson Branch of the Windsor (Conn.) Public Library, received the Special Achievement Award from the Connecticut Library Association. The award recognized her devotion to service. The Wilson Public Library is a small branch library in a multicultural part of the town. The library has maintained its role in the neighborhood as a meeting place, even while that role has been diminishing elsewhere in the face of demands for cost‐effectiveness and efficiency. Rizzo's library is a perfect example of a small library making the most of a limited budget.

Deferred maintenance is endemic in higher education and all levels of government. Too many librarians work in poor physical conditions, and as a result, the services that are supplied to users are not as good as they should be. Even though each year there are many new libraries, additions, and renovations, many continue to exist in suboptimal conditions, with crowded bookshelves, little reading space, and inadequate electrical wiring. As if that were not enough, many changes are required to accommodate the needs of the handicapped. States have been trying to help out with federal funds, but those funds can go only so far. If the present administration has its way, they will vanish along with other Library Services and Construction Act programs “that have served their purpose.”