Law Library Budgets in Hard Times

This article begins by looking at the environment of the academic law library of the twenty-first century, followed by an analysis of the current economic climate and an assessment of how these difficult economic times will affect academic law libraries. The next section discusses strategies a law library director can marshal to manage a multimillion-dollar budget in face of reduced resources. Focusing in on the institution’s own budget and accounting framework, creative thinking, and planning for use of resources can have successful and innovative outcomes for law libraries and the schools they support. Finally tools and strategies that can help support budget requests are discussed.

Keywords: budget, collection development, financial management, law library, trends in academic law libraries, budget reductions, standstill budgets, legal profession, legal information

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Fitchett, Taylor and Hambleton, James and Hazelton, Penny A. and Hazelton, Penny A. and Klinefelter, Anne and Wright, Judith Margaret, Law Library Budgets in Hard Times (November 28, 2011). Law Library Journal, Vol. 103, No. 1, pp. 91-111, 2011, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1965643