pub90. Managing Cultural Assets from a Business Perspective
Laura Price and Abby Smith
(3/00, 35pp) $15
ISBN 1-887334-75-0
Published in cooperation with the Library of Congress (LC), this report describes how LC developed and implemented a plan for greater accountability over its collections.
The report presents a model for the management of library and archival collections that defines collections as core assets and seeks to make them maximally productive while controlling risks to their integrity. The model is not based on the monetary value of library holdings. Instead, it focuses on business risk and proposes a framework of controls to minimize the risks that threaten the viability of those assets. It is not always evident which investments in collection development, preservation, and security will best serve the collections at a given time. With this model, managers can identify priorities for institutional investments in collections and make more compelling budget justifications for necessary resources, because the relationship between the library’s assets and its mission work is made explicit to financial decision makers.
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