Dear Law-Lib Netters,
A few weeks ago I posted a HELP!!! question on the list and
promised that I would summarize the answers. The question
was as follows:
]Our auditor is not satisfied with our method of inventory
]control. We now use a simple "IN-OUT inventory" where we
]count the number of books coming in and subtract the number
]going out. He wants us to count the collection (which we
]need to do anyway), use an average price to give it a
]value, then when each book is added, use the new price, and
]deduce an old average price whenever we discard a book. He
]said that this is the standard government audit.
]This does not make a lot of sense to me (or the auditor) so
]I would like to know what the rest of you are doing - and
]do you have any forms, databases, etc. to make the job
]easier?
I received eight responses, no two alike. The answers that
I received are as follows:
At the direction of the auditors, the Washington State Law
Library each year increases the base value of the collection
by adding 90% of the amount allotted to that year's
publications budget. They also keep an "in-out" count for
books purchased and for gifts. Separate accounts are kept
for federal depository materials and for a small collection
of videos.
The Minnesota State Law Library counts volumes added and
discarded. No monetary value is assigned to either the "in"
count or the "out" count.
The New York Office of Court Administration is working with
the audit staff to define an internal control guide for the
library collections but has not come up with a good
solution. They may establish a "rolling partial" or
statistically valid inventory process that uses library
records and has clearly written guidelines.
The Cleveland Law Library Association uses the average price
for three types of material - books, microfiche and videos.
They started with a collection count. Their system gives
them monthly and annual reports of the number of inventoried
items added and withdrawn. Microfiche are treated
differently. They keep a running talley for them.
The Wyoming State Library has not had to fact auditors. For
inventory purposes, they estimate the number of volumes and
an estimated average value per volume. They use the value
for a new treatise even though this is a little high because
they have rare books that up the value of the collection.
The Florida State Univ. College of Law Library bar coded all
permanent parts of their collection. They use this to get
the volume count. They keep a record of costs per volume.
Thus, when they update carrying value for insurance purposes
they multiply volumes times then current costs. Current
values for rare books are tracked more precisely. They
state in the record for that item its original cost and add
current asking prices as they spot them in catalogs.
The South Dakota School of Law Library has ledgers that
contain a place for the number of volumes in each payment
line. They add up the number of volumes and the amounts on
those lines at the end of the year. They divide the money
by the number of volumes to get an average cost per volume.
They don't count many looseleaf services as permanent and
figure that these make up for the volumes that are
discarded. Nobody is happy with the system.
The Montana State Law Library has also had problems with
this. The auditors wanted a value based on "original
purchase price," which cannot be determined for very old
materials. They also had difficulty working with their
insurance and risk people who wanted to know how much to
insure the collection. The current procedure is to put into
the state's database the value that the collection has grown
that particular year. This is the money actually spent,
cost of binding, accessioning and cataloging per volume and
per title, deducting the discards. She has formulae for
these.
* * *
After considering all of the responses and how they differed
I thought it would be worthwhile to ask an accountant if
there are any standards that can be used to develop our
process. I was told that there are none that would apply to
library holdings.
Thank you for you help, at least I know that I was not being
ignorant or arbitrary when I questioned what the auditor
wanted me to do.
Jackie Wright
Jacqueline S. Wright
Arkansas Supreme Court Library E-mail: SCLIBRARY@UALR.EDU
625 Marshall, Justice Building Phone: (501)682-2147
Little Rock, AR 72201-1080 Fax: (501)682-6877
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