Library Finance and Budget

1) Explain financial management in a library. 

 Financial management is the study of the principles and practices involved in financial operations of a library. Its scope includes acquisition, distribution and utilisation of funds, balancing revenue` and expenditure, general control and evaluation of financial matters. 

2) State the principles that govern financial management.

 The principles that govern financial management are: i) Effective Control ii) Simplicity, iii) Regularity and farsightedness, iv) Economy and v) Flexibility.

3) Enumerate the characteristics of service-oriented and not-for-profit organizations. 

Service-oriented and not-for-profit organisations have certain characteristics distinct from those of profit-oriented organisations. They are as follows:

• Services cannot be stored and hence there is no "inventory" in service oriented organisations. Services unsold are services lost.
• They are labour intensive organisations.
• There is a dominance of professionals in such organisations.
• Service-oriented organisations face the difficulty of measuring the quantity and quality of services rendered. The success of these organisations is based on how much service is rendered and how well rendered.
• The quality of service cannot be inspected and measured before rendering.
• There is no single criterion (like profit) to measure the success of a service-oriented organisation. Multiple objectives, lack of a relationship between costs and benefits and difficulties in measuring the performance and comparing performance of different units of the same organisation are some peculiarities of service-oriented organisations.
• Market forces play a less significant role in service-oriented organisations.
• Service-oriented organisations tend to become political organisations due to lack of shareholders and differences in ownership and power.
• Inadequacy management controls has become a tradition in such organisations as cost accounting and other control techniques are believed to be for profit-oriented organisations.
• They are relatively small and operate usually on a single location basis.

4) List the sources of finance for university libraries. 

The sources of finance for university libraries are:

• Grants from the university budget
• Special grants from the University Grants Commission
• Library fees
• Fines or overdue charges
• Sale of publications, etc.

4) State how public libraries get their funds. Give your answer in four sentences. 

Public libraries get their funds from:

• A library cess collected in states where public library acts are in force.
• State governments provide matching grants equal to the amount collected by way of library cess.
• In some states, all the funds come from government grants.
• Member-subscription is also sometimes a source but is very negligible.

6) List the methods of estimating funds for libraries. 

 The method of estimating library funds are:

• Per Capita method whereby a minimum sum of money is determined for every student, faculty member or research scholar in the university or college library.
• Proportional method prescribes a fixed percentage on the total budget of the parent organisation's research budget or the education budget of the states.
• The methods of details takes into account the actual amount of expenditure made on each item.

7) State the major items of expenditure of libraries.

The major items of expenditure in libraries are: i) Books and journals ii) Salaries and allowances, iii) Binding, iv) Publications like library bulletin or documentation lists, v) Building, equipment and machinery, vi) Contingencies, etc