Budget systems used in allocating resources to libraries

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to provide information about many different budgeting systems that are used to allocate resources to libraries. Design/methodology/approach – A number of methods of resource allocation are reviewed. The types of budgeting covered are incremental line‐item, formula, mathematical, zero‐based, program (including planning, programming, and budgeting systems), performance‐based, responsibility center, block‐incremental, and initiative‐based. Findings – There are numerous types of budgeting systems and each of them functions differently. Research limitations/implications – There are many variations of each of these basic types of budgeting systems. As a result, this article reviews the most prominent ones. Practical implications – This is a very useful source of finding out the fundamentals of each of the basic kinds of budgeting systems. In addition, the article gives many references for finding out more about each of these methods. Originality/value – This paper covers the various types of budgeting systems. This allows librarians to better understand the budgeting system they deal with so that they might better work with it to maximize their library's funding.