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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.

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.”

The state of the U.S. economy is causing some media pundits to issue gloomy reports deploring the decline of manufacturing and the concomitant growth of the service sector. There is no question that our economy is changing — and changing rapidly.

A GREAT deal of recent library news has been about money: rising prices, budget cuts, staff cuts; generally, the call to do more with less. Sometimes citizen protest or the recognition that reduced library services harm everyone has managed to turn the tide. Mostly, however, libraries and librarians have simply bowed to pressure and tried yet again to stretch their budgets. As Barbara Moran said, “even in the sixties libraries never overcame their traditional poverty” (Academic Libraries, 1984, p. 25). Now, when information sources are multiplying and the cost of accessing information is escalating, those already inadequate budgets are being reduced once again.