SCELC Annual Library Budget Survey: FY2021 Conclusions & Recommendations

Download a PDF of the Full Report

Please send questions or comments to:

Jason Price, PhD / Research & Scholarly Communication Director / jason@scelc.org / 310-728-6798

Thanks to the SCELC Member library directors who responded with alacrity at a very busy time of the year. This project benefited greatly from feedback from SCELC management and staff, particularly when it came to developing clear questions with actionable answers. Jason Price built and administered the survey, created the graphs and tables, and wrote this report.

This comprehensive budget survey provided timely, specific information on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on SCELC Member Library budgets.

• Across SCELC FTE bands, materials budgets were on average 5 to 15% lower than they would have been in a normal year, and even then, most do not keep up with e-resource price inflation 
• 80% of library budgets were flat or declined, though there was some evidence that e-resource budgets were less negatively impacted
• Results seemed to suggest that the 10% of SCELC member libraries over 5000 FTE suffered more than the smaller 90%, potentially reflecting a greater impact of loss of income the economies of scale provided by residential housing at SCELCs larger institutions 
• SCELCs results were largely in line with the results from an Ithaka study highlighted in Dec 2020.

On the bright side, this effort proved that it is possible to effectively collect & communicate comprehensive, up-to-the-minute budget change numbers to support renewal negotiations when necessary.

1. Validate the data with final FY2021 numbers. How closely did the most likely scenario estimates match the eventual reality?
2. Repeat this survey for Fiscal Year 2022. It is unlikely that these budget numbers reflect the full near-term impact of the pandemic on SCELC library budgets. Here is a list of salient points from a January 2021 SCELC board discussion. 
   • Most libraries are expecting flat budgets or additional cuts for 2022: libraries are not returning to business as usual 
   • Many libraries curtailed their print purchasing for most if not all of the year. As print purchasing is restarted, eresource budgets will be negatively affected. 
   • Libraries have already been forced to lay off staff, future cuts are more likely to come from collections budgets
   • Whatever recovery may occur will be slow. Enrollment is down: students that left are coming back slowly, if at all.  Because institutions and students can't just catch up after a year's delay, the affects of the pandemic will be felt for four years, even if 2021-2022 proves to be a return to standard operating procedure.
3. Conduct a followup survey in spring 2021 to provide broad evidence of some of the continued near term effects described in #2. 
4. Consider comparing library budget changes to institutional FTE and budget changes as reported to IPEDS.
5. Consider developing a standard annual renewal negotiation process that takes into account SCELC library budgets, SCELC institutional budgets, and the Higher Education Price Index.