Journal of Information and Knowledge (Formerly SRELS Journal of Information Management)

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An Estimation of the Cost of Providing Books for further Reading in Libraries of Distance Education


Affiliations
1 Deputy Librarian, Library and Documentation Division, Indira Gandhi National Open University, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi - 110068, India
2 Ex-Intern, Library and Documentation Division, Indira Gandhi National Open University, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi - 110068, India
     

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The Self Learning Materials (SLMs) of distance education attempt to provide learners with a learning environment containing textbooks and lecture notes. Apart from this, counselling sessions, media enabled solutions such as audio/ video channels and teleconferencing sessions are provided to learners. A small library of essential books for further reading mentioned in the SLMs are also maintained at the study centres to offer library facilities comparable to campus-based education. An accurate and efficient cost estimation and optimisation methodology is very important in library development as it would assist the management to estimate the costs involved. Cost analysis is perhaps not given the required consideration by libraries largely due to the fact that they are state-funded, and difficulties attached to assess the use made out of money spent. This study has been carried out to find out the optimum cost of supply of books prescribed for further reading in the SLMs of Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) programme of the national open university, IGNOU to the libraries of its regional centres and of its study centres hosting the programme.

Keywords

: Cost Estimation, Further Reading Books, Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS), Prescribed Books, Optimisation, Optimum Cost, Reading List.
User
About The Authors

V. K. J. Jeevan
Deputy Librarian, Library and Documentation Division, Indira Gandhi National Open University, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi - 110068
India

Kamna Trivedi
Ex-Intern, Library and Documentation Division, Indira Gandhi National Open University, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi - 110068
India


Notifications

  • Abels, E.G., Kantor, P.B. and Saracevic, T. (1996). Studying the Cost and Value of Library and Information Services: Applying Functional Cost Analysis to the Library in Transition. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 47(3), 217-227. https://doi. org/10.1002/(SICI)1097-4571(199603)47:3<217::AID-ASI6>3.0.CO;2-0.

  • ACRL (Association of College and Research Libraries). (2016). Standards for Distance Learning Library Services, Approved by the ACRL Board of Directors; July 2008. Accessed in Jan 2017. Revised June. http:// www.ala.org/acrl/standards/guidelinesdistancelearning.

  • Christie, A., Pollitz, J.H. and Middleton, C. (2009). Student strategies for coping with textbook costs and the role of library course reserves. Libraries and the Academy, 9(4), 491-510. https://doi.org/10.1353/pla.0.0077.

  • Hayes, R.M. (1996). Cost of electronic reference resources and LCM: The library costing model. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 47(3), 228-234. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1097-4571(199603)47:3<228::AID-ASI7>3.0.CO;2-#.

  • Holt, G. and Elliott, D. (2002). Cost benefit analy-sis: A summary of the methodology. The Bottom Line: Managing Library Finances, 15(4), 154-158. https://doi. org/10.1108/08880450210450915.

  • Huffine, R. (2015). Going beyond cost-per-use assess-ing the value of purchased resources. Online Searcher, 54-58.

  • ILA. (2001). ‘Guidelines for Library Services to Distance Learners’, prepared by the Sectional Committee on Distance Education, Indian Library Association, New Delhi; 28 July 2001.

  • Kont, K.-R. (2015). What do acquisition activities really cost? A case study in Estonian University librar-ies. Library Management, 36(6/7), 511-534. https://doi. org/10.1108/LM-12-2014-0137.

  • Kont, K.-R. (2015a). How to optimize the cost and time of the acquisitions process? Collection Building, 34(2), 41-50. https://doi.org/10.1108/CB-01-2015-0003.

  • Leon, L. and Kress, N. (2012). Looking at resource shar-ing costs. Interlending and Document Supply, 40(2), 81-87. https://doi.org/10.1108/02641611211239542

  • Linn Jr, M. (2009). Cost-benefit analysis: A disparage-ment of its misuse and misexplanation. The Bottom Line: Managing Library Finances, 22(3), 82-85. https:// doi.org/10.1108/08880450910999640.

  • Liu, L.G. (2003). The cost functions and scale econo-mies in academic research libraries. Library Trends, 51(3), 293-311.

  • Poll, R. (2006). To get one’s money’s worth: Library management with cost data. The Bottom Line: Managing Library Finances, 19(1), 7-15. https://doi. org/10.1108/08880450610643016.

  • Rodman, R.L. (2003). Cost analysis and student survey results of library support for distance education. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 91(1), 72-78.

  • Saunders, E.S. (2003). Cost efficiency in ARL aca-demic libraries. The Bottom Line: Managing Library Finances, 16(1), 5-14. https://doi. org/10.1108/08880450310464009.

  • Williams, V.K. and Schmidt, J. (2008). Determining the average cost of a book for allocation formulas: Comparing options Williams. Library Resources and Technical Services, 52(1), 60-70. https://doi.org/10.5860/ lrts.52n1.60.


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  • An Estimation of the Cost of Providing Books for further Reading in Libraries of Distance Education

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Authors

V. K. J. Jeevan
Deputy Librarian, Library and Documentation Division, Indira Gandhi National Open University, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi - 110068, India
Kamna Trivedi
Ex-Intern, Library and Documentation Division, Indira Gandhi National Open University, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi - 110068, India

Abstract


The Self Learning Materials (SLMs) of distance education attempt to provide learners with a learning environment containing textbooks and lecture notes. Apart from this, counselling sessions, media enabled solutions such as audio/ video channels and teleconferencing sessions are provided to learners. A small library of essential books for further reading mentioned in the SLMs are also maintained at the study centres to offer library facilities comparable to campus-based education. An accurate and efficient cost estimation and optimisation methodology is very important in library development as it would assist the management to estimate the costs involved. Cost analysis is perhaps not given the required consideration by libraries largely due to the fact that they are state-funded, and difficulties attached to assess the use made out of money spent. This study has been carried out to find out the optimum cost of supply of books prescribed for further reading in the SLMs of Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) programme of the national open university, IGNOU to the libraries of its regional centres and of its study centres hosting the programme.

Keywords


: Cost Estimation, Further Reading Books, Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS), Prescribed Books, Optimisation, Optimum Cost, Reading List.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.17821/srels%2F2022%2Fv59i5%2F166954