Budgeting

NOTE: Sections in green refer to procedures at Mann Library.

Fund Allocation process
Once a year, usually in spring, the Director of Collections will ask selectors for information about the allocated funds -- any changes in academic programs, special needs, what funding we would need in order to maintain the current level of acquisition, etc. Based on responses, the current state of the Team funds, and other factors, the Director and CDExec allocate funds for the next fiscal year.

Fund types

  • Allocated/Appropriated: assigned by the AUL from the library budget to each of the five Selection Teams.
  • Income: a one-time fund that is gone once it is used up. A small donation, not big enough to set up an endowment, will show up as an income fund.
  • Endowed: income from donated funds, designated for a specific purpose.

We respect the donor’s wishes regarding what kind of material to buy with the income from an endowment. At one time, endowments were used almost exclusively for expensive monographs; now they are used for bread-and-butter acquisitions of all kinds, including serials, unless the donor specifies otherwise. The library accounting office makes and distributes annually a list of all the library materials endowments, giving the principal, estimated income, and any restrictions on their use.

Stewardship Reports
Every year, External Relations asks for a report of how endowment funds were used, if there are living donors or relations thereof. The University Librarian writes a letter once a year to these folks, reporting on the use of the fund, incorporating remarks from the selectors.

Stewardship reports at Mann: Eveline Ferretti, Assistant to the Director of Mann Library, writes an annual letter to endowment donors or their relatives, reporting on the use of the fund.

Managing your budget:

You should have access to FOLIO, which contains information on collection funds, acquisitions, licenses and other information critical to manage the collection. Sharon Beltaine in Library Systems (slm5@cornell.edu) along with the FOLIO Reporting Group, creates and distributes SQL queries and teaches workshops on how to use them. A number of these "canned reports" specifically designed for collection development are available on the FOLIO Canned Reports Directory. See the FOLIO Reporting Documentation wiki for detailed information on running reports.

The easiest way to see the current state of your funds is to log into FOLIO. From the navigation bar at the top of the screen, choose Finance. The menu in the left column offers several options: Fiscal Year, Ledger, Group, Fund. To see the fund summary for Teams (both allocated and endowed), choose Group, then then select the relevant Team or group from the list that displays. To see the current state of all funds, listed numerically, choose Fund. Clicking on a fund will display a snapshot of its current balance and expense class expenditures. You may also use the search box in the left column to retrieve a report on a specific fund.

You should plan to end the year with 100% of your budget expended, and no more than 100% committed.

With time, experience, and monitoring your FOLIO fund data, you will get a sense of how much you can order throughout the year without over-spending your funds.

Rev. by FM, 1/18/22