Maple University Library donations department is operated by the head librarian, Mary James, and a graduate assistant, Nick Carter, a folklore student at Maple University. The head librarian is a salaried position($48,000 per year), and since Mary currently spends approximately one-quarter of her time soliciting and processing book donations, one-fourth of her contracted annual base salary ($12,000) is allocated to the book donations department. Maple University Library is also allotted $5,200 per academic year in additional funds to support the library donations function. This meager sum is used to provide a graduate work-study student a stipend to assist Mary in the donations department during the fall and spring semesters. Work-study students typically work 20 hours per week and are paid on an hourly basis at a rate of $10 per hour. A typical semester is 13 weeks long.1 Currently, Nick is working all his allotted hours in the book donations department. If he were not fully utilized by the book donations department, he would work elsewhere in the university, as his work hours and stipend are guaranteed as a part of his financial aid program. In addition, the library has allotted a small space in the basement of its main building for donations activities. The library allocates a portion of the library’s general facilities costs ($1,200 per year). General facility costs include depreciation on the building, property taxes, insurance, general maintenance costs, and utilities. Since the library’s catalog system is computerized, the only other applicable cost is for the RFID inventory tags, which are relatively minimal and run about $0.50 per book; these RFID tags are purchased by the library as needed.Typically, Mary and her assistant solicit and process an average of 1,000 books per academic year and can, without too much difficulty, solicit and process up to 1,200 books per academic year. However, each year for the past five years, the number of books donated and processed for the library has increased noticeably. Unfortunately, Mary, as head librarian, has library duties other than donations and cannot devote any additional time to the donations department. Nick’s current work-study contract is restricted to only 20 hours per week and only applies to the fall and spring semester. Mary has no additional help during the summer months, which creates quite a backlog of unprocessed books going into the fall semester. Of late, Mary and Nick have begun to experience difficulty processing the increasing number of book donations, and some recent acquisitions are still sitting in boxes on the floor of the donations department’s basement space. Consequently, the library has approached the university budget committee with a request to increase the funds allotted to the book donations department by $5,000 per year. These additional funds would be used to employ part-time students to work an additional ten hours per week during the fall and spring semester, and to work 20 hours per week during the summer months2 to compensate for the increasing number of donated books. This would increase the department’s annual capacity to approximately 1,900 books. Mary can handle the workload between semesters 1 13 weeks @ 20 hours per week equals 260 hours per semester at $10 per hour equates to $2,600 each semester for a total of $5,200 per year.2 Ten hours per week x 13 weeks = 130 hours per semester for the fall and spring semesters; 20 hours per week for 12 weeks in the summer = 240 hours; total additional hours are 130 + 130 + 240 = 500 hours times $10 per hour for a total of $5,000.2at Maple University (especially in the areas of literature, mathematics, and ancient folklore) has increased significantly. There is some evidence to suggest that this is due, at least in part, to the increased visibility of the university, along with the research potential afforded by the unique resources accumulating at the university’s library (due almost entirely to the success of the donations department’s activities).Maple University Library donations department is operated by the head librarian, Mary James, and a graduate assistant, Nick Carter, a folklore student at Maple University. The head librarian is a salaried position ($48,000 per year), and since Mary currently spends approximately one-quarter of her time soliciting and processing book donations, one-fourth of her contracted annual base salary ($12,000) is allocated to the book donations department. Maple University Library is also allotted $5,200 per academic year in additional funds to support the library donations function. This meager sum is used to provide a graduate work-study student a stipend to assist Mary in the
donations department during the fall and spring semesters. Work-study students typically work 20 hours per week and are paid on an hourly basis at a rate of $10 per hour. A typical semester is 13 weeks long.1 Currently, Nick is working all his allotted hours in the book donations department. If he were not fully utilized by the book donations department, he would work elsewhere in the university, as his work hours and stipend are guaranteed as a part of his financial aid program. In addition, the library has allotted a small space in the basement of its main building for donations activities. The library allocates a portion of the library’s general facilities costs ($1,200 per year). General facility costs include depreciation on the building, property taxes, insurance, general maintenance costs, and utilities. Since the library’s catalog system is computerized, the only other applicable cost is for the RFID inventory tags, which are relatively minimal and run about $0.50 per book; these RFID tags are purchased by the library as needed.Typically, Mary and her assistant solicit and process an average of 1,000 books per academic year and can, without too much difficulty, solicit and process up to 1,200 books per academic year. However, each year for the past five years, the number of books donated and processed for the library has increased noticeably. Unfortunately, Mary, as head librarian, has library duties other than donations and cannot devote any additional time to the donations department. Nick’s current work-study contract is restricted to only 20 hours per week and only applies to the fall and spring semester. Mary has no additional help during the summer months, which creates quite a backlog of unprocessed books going into the fall semester. Of late, Mary and Nick have begun to experience difficulty processing the increasing number of book donations, and some recent acquisitions are still sitting in boxes on the floor of the donations department’s basement space. Consequently, the library has approached the university budget committee with a request to increase the funds allotted to the book donations department by $5,000 per year. These additional funds would be used to employ part-time students to work an additional ten hours per week during the fall and spring semester, and to work 20 hours per week during the summer months2 to compensate for the increasing number of donated books. This would increase the department’s annual capacity to approximately 1,900 books. Mary can handle the workload between semesters 1 13 weeks @ 20 hours per week equals 260 hours per semester at $10 per hour equates to $2,600 each semester for
a total of $5,200 per year.2 Ten hours per week x 13 weeks = 130 hours per semester for the fall and spring semesters; 20 hours per week for 12 weeks in the summer = 240 hours; total additional hours are 130 + 130 + 240 = 500 hours times $10 per hour for a total of $5,000. 3 and during the holiday breaks herself with no additional help. Using the cost information provided by the library, the budget committee computed a unit cost per book of $18.90, calculated as follows:
Librarian salary allocation $12,000
Graduate assistant stipend $5,200
Facility cost allocation $1,200
Total costs $18,400
Per book (based on 1,000 books) $18.40
RFID tag per book $.50
Total unit cost $18.90
The committee has since denied the request for additional funds and expressed the following
sentiments. ‘‘First, the unit cost of $18.90 per donated book is already too high; an additional
$5,000 per year would bring the cost per book to $23.90 per book, an entirely unacceptable cost
for the processing of an old used book.
Librarian salary allocation $12,000
Graduate assistant stipend $5,200
Facility cost allocation $1,200
Part-time student help $5,000
Total costs $23,400
Per book (based on 1,000 books) $23.40
RFID tag per book $.50
Total unit cost $23.90
‘‘Second, at the already-high cost of $18.90 per book, the library can hardly afford to accept
more than 1,000 books per year; if, for instance, the library were to accept 2,000 books, it would
cost the university $37,800. Finally, we have serious doubts as to the value of the donations
department; if it were eliminated entirely, the university could save, at the very least $23,900 per
year. These savings could be used to support some other, more worthwhile function within the
library.’’
Librarian salary allocation $12,000
Graduate assistant stipend $5,200
Facility cost allocation $1,200
Part-time student help $5,000
RFID tags ($.50 for 1,000 books) $500
Total savings $23,900

Question
In a professional memo (use proper headings and formatting) directed to the Chair of the Budget Committee: (1) summarize (do not reiterate all of the details) your evaluation of the budget committee’s analysis (in Part 5), and (2) based on your analysis, present a succinct, logical argument in support of the library’s request for additional funds for the book donations department. Limit your logical argument to three or four key points.