INCOME AND EXPENDITURE

by

Fred W. Roper and John N. Olsgaard

[Editor's note]: For a complete listing of schools that submitted data for this year's report, please click the list of schools.

 

This section of the report provides a descriptive analysis of the data pertaining to the financial status of graduate programs of library and information science whose first professional degree programs have been accredited by the American Library Association. Complete financial data were received from 55 of the 56 eligible schools with ALA-accredited programs. Only two reports were received from schools that do not have an accredited program. Their responses are reported separately.

 

Funding: Amounts and Sources

A total income of $102,753,928 was reported by 55 schools; this represents an average income of $1,868,253, as shown in Table IV-1. Funding for the schools ranged from a high of $9,504,662 to a low of $416,094. The median income in 1996-97 for the 55 schools was $1,343,455, which represents a decrease of three percent from the previous year’s median income of $1,385,939.

The average income continues to increase. A review of the percentage of increase or decrease for individual schools is reported in Table IV-2. The number of schools receiving increases in total income of one percent or greater increased from 27 in 1995-96 to 33 in 1996-97. The number of schools receiving decreases of one percent or greater declined to 19 in 1996-97 from 21 in the previous year.

The frequency distribution of the total income for schools with ALA-accredited programs is contained in Table IV-3. Thirty-five schools reported income over $1,000,000, compared with 36 schools in 1995-96 and 34 schools in 1994-95. Thirteen schools again reported income over $2,000,000. At the lower end of the spectrum, the number of schools reporting income under $600,000 increased to eight, compared with seven in 1995-96.

In Table IV-4, the sources of funds for schools with ALA-accredited programs are described for the ten-year period, 1987-88 to 1996-97. The largest percentage of funding continues to come from the parent institution. The percentage of support from the parent institution has declined in each of the ten years, except for 1992-93. Although the actual amount has increased considerably, the percentage has decreased by 16 points. Dependence on other sources continues to increase.

Table IV-5 depicts the frequency distribution of income from the parent institution. These figures ranged from a high of $5,518,507 to a low of $354,219, with a median figure of $1,013,534. Two schools reported income under $400,000, up one from 1995-96. Six schools reported support under $500,000 in 1996-97, compared with five schools in 1995-96. Again twenty-eight schools reported support in an amount over $1,000,000. Twenty-four of these 28 schools were from the United States; four were from Canada. Eight schools reported income from the parent institution of greater than $2,000,000 in 1996-97, compared with seven in 1995-96.

Schools were again asked to indicate if there was any special basis for receiving funding from the parent institution, such as FTE, credit hours generated, or head count. Table IV-6 provides the responses received from the ALA-accredited programs. There is little change from previous years.

In 1996-97, the number of schools who reported federal funding decreased slightly to 33 as shown in Table IV-7. For the past ten years, the number has varied between 29 and 40 schools. The mean for federal funding again increased as has been the case in every year since 1987-88 with the exceptions of 1989-90 and 1993-94. The increase in 1996-97 was 20 percent.

The range of federal funds in 1996-97 went from a high of $2,756,961 to a low of $893. (The median was $88,000). Table IV-8 reports the frequency distribution of income from federal funding.

Differences in income between schools with doctoral programs and those without continue to be examined. Table IV-9 shows that the total mean income for schools with doctoral programs continues to be more than two times as high as that of schools not offering the doctorate. Schools without the doctorate continue to have greater dependence on the parent institution than those with doctoral programs.

Income data for the ALA-accredited schools were first examined by geographic regions in 1982-83; these data are again presented in 1996-97 according to the regional listings established by the American Library Association’s Committee on Accreditation. Table IV-10 reports these data.

  

Expenditures: Types and Amounts

The 1996-97 expenditures by category for member schools are shown in Table IV-11, along with mean expenditures, ranges, and percent of total.

A comparison of these figures with those reported for 1995-96 shows increases in average expenditures in all categories with the exception of student aid. The largest increase was for Research, an increase of approximately $25,000 in the average amount. There was an increase in the percentage of expenditures in the categories of Teaching and Administration, Research, Continuing Education, and Other, although with the exception of Teaching and Administration (from 9.5% to 10.7%), the amount of increase was only a tenth of a percentage point.

Questions relating to the library and information science facilities were again included in 1996-97. Schools were asked to indicate if they had a separate library; whether the library received its major support from the school; whether the librarian was funded by the school; and if the library was administratively a part of the main library. Table IV-12 displays the responses.

Table IV-13 shows the amount of support given to the library for those schools that reported library support as a direct budget line.

Schools were asked to indicate the allocation of salaries and wages among four categories: faculty, specialist, clerical, and students. Table IV-14 provides the distribution for all schools plus a comparison for those with and without the doctoral programs.

A review of the teaching and administration expenses by category is provided in Table IV-15. All categories of expenditures except dues and insurance show modest increases. Equipment and Computing show larger increases -- from $50,556 to $60, 178 for Equipment and from $21,513 to $33,243 for Computing.

All categories of expenditures were examined for schools with and without doctoral programs, and these results are shown in Table IV-16.

Computing costs for member schools were again examined in 1995-96 and continue to show great variation. These figures are presented in Table IV-17.

Travel expenditures are reported in Table IV-18.

Tables IV-19 and IV-20 present the complete income and expenditure figures for all 55 schools with ALA-accredited programs reporting data.

Institutional benefits (Table IV-21) provided by a parent institution and/or its library vary. Those identified by a school are listed below:

Alabama Computer center; library materials & services; conference planning services; audio-visual services; wages for work-study students; telephone (WATTS in-state); free Dialog, Wilsonline, OCLC, Lexis/Nexis, Questel-Orbit, & others.
Alberta SLIS share of library budget; professional expense allowance; special sessions instructional fees.
British Columbia Distributed computing charge.
Buffalo Fringe benefits; library studies collection and LIS bibliographer (pt); 12 GA positions elsewhere at UB filled by SLIS students (stipends & tuition); minority fellowships and tuition scholarships to 3 SLIS students.
Clark Atlanta Tables and chairs; lecterns and stools; global projector; utility tables; printer stands; chalkboards and bulletin boards; digital camera; printers, cables.
Dalhousie Computer center; instructional aid/A-V.
Drexel GA tuition.
Emporia William Allen White Library.
Kent State Library monographs allocation; special computer allocation.
Kentucky Computing as needed.
Long Island Equipment and furnishings for Ph.D. program; LIS library; stipends; graduate assistantships; duplication; work study students; scholarships.
Louisiana State SLIS students as LSU library grad. assistants; SLIS students as other graduate assistants; SLIS library personnel; SLIS library collection budget.
Maryland Periodicals & maintenance; standing orders.
Michigan Distributed computing services; computing partnership program.
NC Central Work study aid; computer time; membership dues.
NC Chapel Hill Federal work/study graduate assistants; graduate assistants; school library staff; research services graduate assistants; serials, books, and standing orders.
NC Greensboro Computer resources; telephone/fax machine; materials/university library.
North Texas Development officer; graduate library assistantships.
Oklahoma Non-resident tuition waiver.
Pittsburgh Salary of Dean.
Pratt Library resources and personnel; institute-wide computer resources; multimedia resources and personnel; admission services; catalog productions; institute-wide advertising.
Queens Postage; duplicating services; media services; telephone services; technical support
Rhode Island CCE faculty salaries; library budget; CCE travel.
St. John’s Renovation of Lounge and selected offices; library materials; renovation of classrooms; new furniture for classrooms; 60 new computers; projection systems; telephone service other than data; postage- non-special.
Simmons GSLIS library; media services; college computer services; ESL tutor.
Tennessee Library materials allocation; fee waivers -GTAs.
Texas Materials for LIS collection; materials for youth collection; professional staff (LIS collection); support staff (clerical assistant).
Texas Woman’s Computing services; acquisitions for LS library; media services.
Toronto Staff benefits.
Washington Library book & materials allowance; audio-visual services; library media services.
Wayne State Media services.
Wisc. Milwaukee Fringe benefits; donated teaching; general student services; graduate student services; alumni relations services; computing resources; division of continuing education.