ACRL Public Community Budget & Finance Committee

Dear ACRL Budget & Finance Committee,

The Budget and Finance Committee is invited to review the attached packet regarding ACRL's and Choice's FY25 budgets and have discussion during the period of 9/11/2024–9/17/2024. It is essential that committee members post all their comments and questions via this email chain regarding the FY25 budget.  

Following the discussion period, the Committee will vote on the action request, through a virtual vote held 9/18/2024 – 9/24/2024, and confirm its vote at the next synchronous meeting.

Thank you for your cooperation in this time sensitive matter.

Sincerely,

Elois

Elois Sharpe
American Library Association │Association of College & Research Libraries

225 N. Michigan Ave.|Suite 1300|Chicago, IL 60601

312-280-5277|1.800.545.2433, ext 5277│esharpe@ala.org

To everything there is a season!
 

Dear ACRL Budget & Finance Committee,

Please see the below email from B&F member, Katy O'Neill. Select "Reply all", to post your comments and questions.

Thank you, Elois, Allison, and Rachel, for your work on the budget materials for review and comment by ACRL Budget and Finance Committee Members.  Overall, I found them to be thorough and very helpful for understanding the proposed FY25 budget for ACRL.  I know how much time this takes to prepare.  I found the recap of the history of the budget process for this year and where we are at in the budgetary transitions in relation to ALA to be beneficial in my review.  I have the following questions:

1. Broadly and at a project level I am unclear if or how emerging technologies impact on the research, teaching, and learning process is reflected.  The elephant in the room is of course AI's impact on library operations (change in the profession) and on information literacy (approaches related to the Framework or toolkits).  For example, the TATIL (Project 3711), are their components of this that will address these types of changes?  AI is not the only, but it is an obvious example. It was helpful to see this addressed in documentation related to the Choice budget.
2. I'm likely confused but how does ALA's dues streamlining effort affect the assumptions in this budget?  I was looking at the expectation that a dues increase might be approved in FY25 per Hepi.  So I am just wondering how these two coincide or if they are separate issues related to how the budget might be affected in FY25.
3. Last, I wanted to make sure I was not crossing wires.  I believe when we spoke in the past there were some critical IT infrastructure investments needed for Choice.  I saw the number of project and associated savings relative to leveraging ALA infrastructure to achieve economies of scale and savings.  Great work on this effort!  However, I wanted to be sure if there are other IT infrastructure investments related to those earlier discussions that have or have not been met and what are the plans there if they have not. 

Last, I'll make a comment.  I am glad to see that the ACRL and related ACRL support staff will be meeting to discuss future priorities for the association and the related budget included to do so in FY25.  I'm also glad to hear funding has been included for the executive director position as well.  Let me know if I've understood that last bit correctly.

Again, thank you for all the work to prepare these materials and all you and the entire staff at ACRL and Choice do to support the academic library community.

Best,

Katy O'Neill

Director, Loyola Notre Dame Library

ACRL, Budget and Finance Committee Member

Hi Katy,

Thank you for your review of the FY25 budget and for your questions. I'm including my responses here, but please let me know if you have any additional questions.

Regarding emerging technologies, such as AI, these are not explicitly called out within ACRL's budget, but the impact is seen within the individual projects. Staff and member leaders monitor library trends throughout the year, and findings are reflected through our programs and services. For example, our web CE program has seen increased revenues for our AI courses-and this revenue trend is reflected in our web CE budget for FY25.

For membership dues, the Board/Committee approved to increase FY25 personal member dues by $2, which is 3% of the allowed 4% increase in the Higher Education Price Index (HEPI) as allowed by the ACRL Bylaws. The Board/Committee also approved aligning the retired member dues category with the Type I personal dues category to simplify the division's dues structure in accordance with the new ALA membership model approved by the association Executive Board. Projections were made based on the current decline and past actuals, but I'm hopeful that actuals outperform with the implementation of the simplified membership model.

Choice is in communication with ALA IT to include funding for the Choice reviews publishing system rebuild. It is anticipated that this cost will be covered in the ALA IT budget, and the Committee will be updated when the RFP is completed in the coming months.  

I'm confirming that the ACRL Board will be holding a strategic planning meeting to identify priorities for the association. I'm also confirming that the FY25 budget now includes the salary for a permanent ACRL Executive Director.

Best,

Allison

Allison Payne, MLIS (she/her/hers) | ACRL Interim Executive Director

Association of College and Research Libraries | 225 N Michigan Ave., Suite 1300, Chicago, IL 60601 | 312-280-2519 | apayne@ala.org