Cost Analysis

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A common question to ALA is "How much does it cost a library to ...?" And it doesn't matter if the task is "to catalog a book," or "to answer a reference question," or "maintain a serial title," the answer is always, "It depends on how your library is structured and what you include in the cost factors." This page will collect various references to costing methodologies and studies.



ALCTS Technical Services Costs Committee. "Guide to Cost Analysis of Acquisitions and Cataloging in Libraries." ALCTS Newsletter 2:5 (1991) pp. 49-52. The purpose of the Guide is to aid the user in arriving at a per unit cost for any acquisitions or cataloging function. Using pertinent budget and production statistics, plus the Guide to Cost Analysis of Acquisitions and Cataloging in Libraries table included in the article, the technical processing manager may arrive at a figure. Step-by-step instructions for using the Guide are included, as well as an extensive list of sample variables to be measured in technical services cost studies.

Berry, Louise. "The Library Shopper." The Bottom Line 3:4 (1989) pp. 31. In a small sidebar, the author reports per-book costs for cataloging in her library. She reports that: (1) a library technical assistant cataloging "children's books, fiction, and easy nonfiction" costs $1.76 per book; and (2) a department head doing "original and problem cataloging" costs $8.40 per book. Calculating methodology is not provided.

Chao, Dolly. "Cost Comparisons Between Bibliographic Utilities and CD-ROM-Based Cataloging Systems." Library Hi Tech (Issue 27) 7:3 (1989) pp. 49-52. Although comparing older technologies, this article discusses the major cost areas to consider when selecting an automated system for cataloging. These are: purchase/one-time costs; ongoing costs; and staff resource costs. Sample worksheets are included for calculating costs in each of these areas for either a bibliographic utility or a CD-ROM-based cataloging system.

Cooper, Michael D. "The Costs of Providing Electronic Journal Access and Printed Copies of Journals to University Users." Library Quarterly, vol. 76, no. 3, pp. 323-351. Six models for analyzing costs options for the University of California.

Harris, George D. "Historic Cataloging Costs, Issues, and Trends." Library Quarterly 59:1 (Jan. 1989) pp 1-21. The author looks at cataloging costs from 1876 to 1986. He conducted a 1986 survey of 179 of the largest academic libraries; he had 117 responses. For these libraries, the cost of copy cataloging was used in finding the average costs of 34 libraries. Other libraries gave a range of figures; with these, the author used the lower figure. For libraries that gave one figure for both monographs and serials into one figure, the highest figure was $53.00 and the lowest was $14.67. For libraries giving separate figures for monographs, the range was from $32.00 for original cataloging at one university to a low of $6.43 at another. The study found the average cataloging costs for 34 libraries as $17.17 and the median as $15.00. The author cautions readers that "'cataloging costs' means something different at every single library in the country."

Intner, Sheila S. "Numerology 2: Technical Services Costs." Technicalities, Sept./Oct. 2005, Vol. 25, no. 5, p. 1, 10-12. Costing of library technical services in lay terms.

Jackson, Mary E. Measuring the Performance of Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery Services. ARL: A Bimonthly Newsletter of Research Library Issues and Actions Issue 195.(December 1997). Jackson found that on average, the unit cost to research libraries to borrow an item on interlibrary loan is $18.35, and the cost to lend an item is $9.48. Average borrowing turnaround time is 16 calendar days, the borrowing fill rate is 85%, and the lending fill rate is 58%.

Kantor, Paul B. “Library Cost Analysis,” Library Trends (Fall 1989): 171-88.

Kingma, Bruce. The Economics of Information: A Guide to Economic and Cost-Benefit Analysis for Information Professionals. 2d ed. Englewood, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, 2001. This is a text-book treatment of economics as applied to examples in the field of library and information management, including publishing. There is a thorough discussion of fixed and variable costs, as well as marginal costs and cost/benefit analysis.

Kusack, James Michael. “Understanding and Controlling the Costs of Library Services.” Library Administration & Management 16:3 (Summer 2002) pp. 151-155. Kusack reviews the reasons for preparing costs studies and provides a guide to using the resultant information of effective management decisions. His is a common-sense, narrative review of the steps involved in determining the costs of operations, services, or space.

Landesman, Margaret. “The Cost of Reference.” Library Journal November 15, 2001, p. 8-10.

Leung, Shirley W. "Study of the Cataloging Costs at the University of California, Riverside." Technical Services Quarterly 5:1 (1987) pp 57-66. This study was conducted at one University. While the figures cited are specific to that University at one particular time, the model can by used by other libraries to determine their own costs. For 1984, this library's average costs for all levels of cataloging (per unit) were $14.65, for original cataloging $44.53, for variant cataloging $17.61, for copy offline cataloging $10.40, and for copy online cataloging $8.22.

Morris, Dilys E. "Staff Time and Costs for Cataloging." Library Resources & Technical Services 36:1 (Jan. 1992) pp. 79-95. Morris reports on the first three years of a longitudinal study begun in 1987 by the Iowa State University Library Technical Services Division. The purpose of the study was to investigate changes in task times, staffing patterns, and personnel costs as automation was expanded. During sample weeks, technical services staff recorded the time worked according to defined tasks grouped within cost centers. Salary data was also recorded for the sample weeks. Results show the proportion of time spent at tasks, trends and changes over time, and per-title cataloging time and costs.

Oldfield, William R. "Cataloguing and Catalogue Maintenance: Functional Cost Allocation System." Technical Services Quarterly 5:2 (1987) pp 55-65. The author describes a functional cost-allocation system applicable to any university library through the identification of 11 generic cataloging functions. An annual unit cost for each function allows the rate of increase or decrease to be monitored.

Saffady, William. "The Cost of Automated Cataloging Support: An Analysis and Comparison of Selected Products and Services." Library Technical Reports 25:4 (July-August 1989). This issue of LTR is primarily devoted to automated commercial cataloging products and services and their comparative costs. The author describes the major commercial products (i.e., bibliographic utilities, cataloging via online information services, CD-ROM cataloging systems, and microfiche and printed cataloging tools) and creates a model through which the costs of cataloging with these systems can be directly compared.

Smith, G. Stevenson. “Cost Concepts and Decision Making”, Chapter 2 in Managerial Accounting for Libraries and Other Not-for-Profit Organizations, Second Ed. Chicago, ALA, 2002.
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