The management of the library's financial resources when implementing an open environment

Abstract

This paper focuses on the new challenges faced by library managers in their efforts to implement an open learning environment during a time of economic crisis. The paper is based on the experience of the Director of the Klaipeda University Library (KUL) in Lithuania during the last ten years of the library„s operation. It includes a discussion of the changing picture of the university„s budget development process and efforts to engage university leaders by developing a deeper understanding of the library„s role in supporting changing academic programs and in the accreditation of those programs, and the contribution that the library makes to the university„s standing within the higher education community. While the KU Libraries still struggled in this period for a better budget, librarians of KUL very often found themselves acting as change agents for their institution and especially as advocates of the open access movement in the university community. A part of this paper is devoted to the library„s experience as a participant in Lithuanian library consortia (the Lithuanian Research Library Consortium - LMBA and the Lithuanian academic Network – LABT) and provides a description of the concrete financial benefit of this participation. The main propositions in the paper are illustrated with statistical data from KUL budget documents and the results of the latest library„s user surveys.