Financial Management in Academic Libraries: Managing a Budget and Reporting

Sponsored by ACRL

Recorded on 02/19/2018
Posted in The Authority File

Episode 28

How do institutional procurement policies impact spending? When is leasing a good option for libraries? When is buying? What parts of the budget should be allocated on a nine-month versus a twelve-month cycle?

Robert Dugan, co-author of the ACRL title, Financial Management in Academic Libraries: Data-Driven Planning and Budgeting, walks listeners through the warren of budgeting, procurement, and reporting issues surrounding and underlying academic libraries. Using his institution, the University of West Florida, as an example, he discusses how the library helps students navigate textbook affordability, and he provides an insider’s look at his personal internal management information system—the same one he’s been using for decades—to help consolidate reporting into a more streamlined and accessible package.

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About the guest:

Robert E. Dugan is the dean of libraries at the University of West Florida (Pensacola). Prior to assuming this position, he had been at Suffolk University, Boston; Wesley College, Dover, Delaware; and Georgetown University, Washington, DC. He has also worked in state and public libraries during his more than forty-three-year career. He is the coauthor of fourteen books, including the award-winning Viewing Library Metrics from Different Perspectives (2009). He has taught library financial management at the master’s and doctoral levels and at library leadership workshops.


About the Music:
The intro and outro music in Authority File is “Grapes,” mixed by I dunno. The transition music is “Peace ( There’s A better Way ),” mixed by Loveshadow. The music is available on ccMixter, and is used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (cc-by 4.0).