For libraries, reducing operating costs is rarely a simple matter. Increases in expenses typically outpace inflation—a phenomenon common to institutions throughout the service sector of the economy. And while personnel and fringe benefits generally comprise the bulk of a library's operating...

Libraries are labor‐intensive operations. And that labor is often in short supply due to budgetary restrictions or other influences beyond the immediate control of the library administration. When this happens, carrying out day‐to‐day activities may involve such an overwhelming portion of...

“So long, Old Paint!” The cowboy's plaintive farewell to his faithful horse is apt to be echoed as library administrators find that their mechanical and electromechanical equipment is either wearing out, or must be replaced because parts or service are no longer available.

“Have I got a deal for you!” the letter says, or words to that effect: pre‐pay your monthly installments one year in advance and take a discount from the list price.

“See saw, Marjorie Daw….,” the old nursery rhyme phrase, recalls the general liability crisis of the mid‐1980s in the commercial insurance field. History will repeat itself, and administrators may well have cause to relive those days of high price and limited availability. Favorable...

The increasing complexity of the modern office environment is self‐evident: electronic calculators, computers with their terminals and peripherals, photocopiers and fax machines, postage meters, and folding and addressing machines. All are commonplace. And at some time or another, each one of...

In times of fiscal stringency, budget formulators are often hard pressed to reduce expenditures. While the requirement to “cut costs” may initially provide the impetus for public sector managers to find better, more effective, and less expensive methods of achieving operational objectives,...

In times of fiscal stringency, administrators and managers are pressured to reduce costs, to find more innovative and more efficient methods of providing services. The largest portion of library expenditures is allocated for personnel (usually 65 percent or more of the budget), followed by 12...

As time goes by, procedures change, needs vary, equipment wears out or becomes obsolete, and materials are offered in new formats. Thus, the library administrator overseeing the budgetary process is continually confronted with the prospect of evaluating procedures and making changes to meet new...

In a previous column in the Winter 1990 issue (volume 4, number 4, page 37), it was pointed out that the budget document usually reflects out‐of‐pocket costs and not true costs. Here are some further examples.