Financial Management in Academic Libraries: Measuring Results and Proving Value

Sponsored by ACRL

Recorded on 02/26/2018
Posted in The Authority File

Episode 29

What do academics and librarians get wrong about financial evaluation and assessment? Is there a difference? What is a book’s unit cost within the library, and why does it matter? How do a library’s public relation efforts dovetail with its finances? In this week’s episode Bill wraps up his conversation on library finances with University of West Florida Dean of Libraries, Robert Dugan, co-author of the new book from ACRL, Financial Management in Academic Libraries: Data-Driven Planning and Budgeting. They talk through the uses and limitations of library metrics and offer an example of best practices that can be drawn from peer comparison, and they touch on the difference between expenditures and costs. Give this week’s episode a listen for an insightful look at how responsible libraries can manage their finances to meet the needs of their community.

Looking for the book?

Buy it here.

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).

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