Transcript Library Valuations

Library Valuations
Janine Schmidt
University Librarian
University of Queensland
CAUL Meeting, Cairns, September,
2003
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CAUL Meeting, Cairns, September,
2003
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Valuations
Collections
Total/sum of the parts
Access vs ownership
Replace? Repair?
Expense or capitalise?
Depreciate? Appreciate?
Period of time – straight line, diminishing balance
Inexhaustible resource
CAUL Meeting, Cairns, September,
2003
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What is everyone doing?
Something different…
Rare or special collections only
Write off after 5, 10 or 15 years
Historical costs, depreciate over 20 years (books), 50
years (journals), not at all (rare books)
Depreciation rates vary from 2% to 20% to 100%
after 4 years
Insurance value – replacement cost based on
average cost per volume of serials and monographs
purchased in most recent year x inventory
CAUL Meeting, Cairns, September,
2003
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Value
Market/resale value/use
Purchase price – wear and tear, obsolescence
Replacement cost
Processing costs – cataloguing, binding
Based on accurate inventory
Individual item values
External
Internal
Estimate based on average
Research collection vs teaching and learning
CAUL Meeting, Cairns, September,
2003
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CAUL Meeting, Cairns, September,
2003
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What is UQ doing?
Number of monographs x average price
($104) + processing costs ($13) for insurance
Number of journal volumes x average price
for last 10 years (replacement photocopies
for earlier) ($924) + processing costs
($22)for insurance
Special Collections valued separately by
independent valuer
CAUL Meeting, Cairns, September,
2003
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What is UQ doing?
Number of microforms x average cost
($45)
Number of sound recordings x average
cost ( $50)
Number of videos x average cost ($147)
Number of maps x average cost ($15)
CAUL Meeting, Cairns, September,
2003
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Changes proposed by QAO
New policy – Non-Current Asset
Accounting Guidelines for the Qld Public
Sector
Collection to be valued at historic cost
Future purchases to be expensed (if below
the nominated asset value for the
collection) or depreciated (if above the
asset threshold value)
CAUL Meeting, Cairns, September,
2003
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Changes proposed by QAO
Heritage or unique collections will be valued
on a “fair value” basis
QAO believes this would apply to very small part of UQ
collection
Common use material with limited useful lives
is measured at historic cost annually and
depreciated (14.25% suggested) over the
expected useful life of the item
QAO believes this would be major part of UQ collection
CAUL Meeting, Cairns, September,
2003
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Changes proposed by QAO
An appropriate asset recognition threshold to
be established taking into account the need
to recognise as assets only the more valuable
items (Section 45, FMS 1997)
Material purchased with a cost below the asset threshold
will be expensed each year and the cost written off – this
would mean majority of purchases would be written off
each year!
Assets valued at historical cost should never
be revalued upwards (Section 4.3, NCAA Guidelines)
CAUL Meeting, Cairns, September,
2003
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Another issue – asset
management practices
Licensed access not ownership
Authorized users
Employees, faculty, students
Walk-in users – physically present
Authenticated access
IP address, password
No archival rights
Limitations
Campus
Document delivery
CAUL Meeting, Cairns, September,
2003
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CAUL Meeting, Cairns, September,
2003
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CAUL Meeting, Cairns, September,
2003
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The Future
UQ will continue to persuade the QAO that as
a research intensive library
the collection is maintained permanently
its value does not diminish over time
large amounts of material at UQ actually increase
in value over time
the collection is in fact a “cultural asset”
Therefore should be valued on fair value
principles
CAUL Meeting, Cairns, September,
2003
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