Economics of Academic Libraries

Understand the economic behaviors of academic research libraries. Librarians working for academic libraries make decisions on how to spend their budgets on collections, services, and programs. Given libraries’ flat or reduced budgets, what/how/from whom to purchase library materials is an increasingly important issue. The theories and research methodologies presented here will help those working in academic libraries to understand the economic behaviors of academic research libraries and the information markets, helping to minimize costs and maximize limited resources. It can be tricky to find the right methodologies to evaluate the efficiency of academic library services and programs. Economics of Academic Libraries breaks down research areas by methodologies applied in the literature and explains how they can be used by practicing information professionals. For example, some commonly used cost measures, such as cost-per-use analysis, while convenient, can be misleading because they do not differentiate fixed costs from variable costs. Lewis G. Liu introduces relevant research methodologies for a wide range of library operations in both the United States and internationally. Beginning with a theoretical framework of the economic behavior of academic research libraries in relation to the missions and goals of higher education institutions, Liu discusses inputs, outputs, and library data and applies cost functions to reference, circulation, collection management, and interlibrary loans. Academic library researchers, directors, and practicing will rely on this book to guide their research and decisionmaking about library operations.