Balancing the books : accounting for librarians

Any competent librarian can have good accounting skills--after all, attention to detail, correct classification, and effective documentation are essential to both kinds of tasks. This book covers accounting concepts, budgeting, and government regulations that pertain to libraries.

Balancing the Books: Accounting for Librarians fills the gap that exists in literature on library acquisitions accounting. By covering essential accounting concepts, budgeting, government regulations that pertain to libraries, as well as accounting measurement methods and their relationship to assessment, this book effectively addresses the questions often posed by acquisition librarians pertaining to accounting. It also directs readers to other authoritative resources for help on accounting topics outside the scope of the work.

The book begins by addressing the specific issues involved with library accounting. Section two provides the reader with a fundamental grasp of accounting principles by providing readers with definitions, examples, and templates to help them understand and apply accounting standards to their unique situations. In section three, the reciprocal relationship between accounting and budgeting is examined, and the author further explores how budgeting can be used by librarians in deciding what they want to measure and what those metrics should be. The final section covers important regulations and standards--for example, those promulgated by the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB).

Section I: Existing state of accounting in the library science field -- Chapter 1: Job responsibilities of acquisitions librarians -- Changing environment of library acquisitions -- What current advertisements in ALA JobList tell us about acquisitions librarian positions -- Assessing the accounting and financial composition of acquisitions librarianship -- Description of purchasing agent in government agency as a model for acquisitions -- Chapter 2: Fiscal management responsibilities of library directors -- How library director jobs are described in ALA JobList -- Investments -- Description of a financial manager as a model for financial responsibilities of a library director -- Notes -- Chapter 3: Acquisitions or accounting preparation in library and information science programs -- Beyond coursework -- Chapter 4: Necessary skill sets -- Collection development, teamwork, and communication -- Major resource management processes -- Contracts and licenses -- Acquisitions and the life cycle of an electronic resource -- Creating diagrams, flowcharts, and mindmaps to represent processes and cycles -- Accounting and budgeting -- Conclusion -- Notes.