Faculty-Determined Allocation Formula at Southwest Texas State University

Abstract A static library budget combined with increasing costs of acquisitions and rapid curriculum expansion at Southwest Texas State University resulted in the need for a major redesign of the library allocation formula. Faculty, with assistance from library administrators, designed a comprehensively unique formula that reflects the changed library environment. A campus-wide faculty survey determined the variables and their priority in the new formula. For the first time, this allocation formula incorporates objectively the quantity of material available in each field of knowledge. Departments are assigned a quantity index that is a weighted average of the amount of material available in each field of knowledge. The methodology used to derive the formula, and the formula itself, can be easily applied by university libraries in their efforts to develop a balanced collection while facing a resource crunch.