Research On The Optimum Distribution Of Documentary Funds In Academic Libraries Based On Utility

Based on the study of relative research on optimum distribution of documentary funds in academic libraries, this article researches the optimum allocation of funds of two major types of vector, which are electronic and paper documents, based on utility theory in economics and optimization theory. A set of method of utility-based academic library funding allocation has been put forward in the article through literature research, network research and expert research.By the study of documentary collection in academic libraries in Jiangsu province, it’s found that, at present, electronic documents and printed documents have been two major categories of collection in university libraries. Electronic documents and paper documents constitute almost all the literature funding requirements. We also have done an expert questionnaire survey in university libraries in Nanjing. We found that the documentary funds allocation work show a lack of standardization and scientific of documentation in all these libraries. At the same time, the major factors impacting the funds allocation on electronic documents and paper documents have been investigated in the expert research. These factors, which are readers’ needs, the development needs of key subjects, collection structure, literature utilization, the overall goal of collection development, scientific research needs, and the reader level, indicate the fondness of readers for the different forms of documentary.In order to analyze the main factors impacting the readers’preferences for different carriers of literature, the readers including teachers, workers and students in some universities are investigated by investigation questionnaire. The investigation result is analyzed, and it’s indicated that the main factors are well documented existence, convenience accesses, and novel information, easy to use and easy to carry, extension information, and reading habits of readers. What’s more, we found that the utility of e-journals, paper books, e-books, paper journals to readers decrease one by one, and most teachers, graduate students and employees preferred the school library’s electronic resources, and the undergraduates are the major readers of paper books. When constructing academic library resources, both the museum’s construction task needs and preferences needs of readers are required to be taken into account. We construct a utility index system to measure the utility of the collections of electronic resources and printed resources in academic libraries, taking the museum’s needs and the needs of the reader preferences into account. By analyzing the mission of constructing documentary resources of the library and the main factors of documentary resources constructing, we found the core factors affecting the fund distribution between electronic documents and paper documents, which are unique collection, demand for key disciplines of basic teaching needs, scientific research needs and the efficiency of resource use. The utility index system is used to evaluate the effectiveness of electronic resources (primarily electronic journals and electronic books) and paper-based resources (mainly book paper and paper journals), and the weights of two kinds of resources are calculated. The weights indicate the utility indexes of the e-resources and paper documents. In order to measure the relationship of utility of documents between the quantity of documents and the optimal funding allocation between electronic documents and paper documents, the Douglas utility function and non-linear programming algorithm are introduced in this thesis to build utility-based electronic resources and paper-based model for optimal allocation of resources funding.Then some academic library in Nanjing was researched as an example using the model of optimal allocation of documentary funding which is presented in this thesis. We chose some librarian experts and reader experts and designed librarian expert investigation paper and reader expert investigation paper to quantify the effectiveness of indicators. In the survey, data of documentary construction condition from2005to2007were investigated to caculate the model parameters. We compared the calculated result of the funding allocation of2008and the actual way of the fund allocation between electronic resources and paper resources. It’s found that the actual way in2008of fund allocation between electronic resources and paper resources is quite different from the calculated result under the maximum effectiveness of fund allocation using the optimum distribution model. The fund allocated for electronic documents are quite less than the empirical result, and the effectiveness calculated using the actual way is much smaller the maximum effectiveness. The reasons for this phenomenon are analyzed through expert interviews. One of the important reasons is the museum allocated about31%of the total appropriation to buy foreign periodicals in the literature due to assessment of needs. However, the expert survey conducted in the example library shows that the utility index is the lowest among the four types of documents and the utility index of electronic resources is the highest. Unfortunately, the financial resources allocated on electronic resources are far less than that on paper documents. This is the important reason of which have contributed to the very differences between the actual allocation way in the very academic library in2008and the empirical result with the model.Finally, the optimization model of fund distribution between electronic documents and printed documents is analyzed and evaluated in three aspects that are library, readers and the documentary resources. At the end of this thesis, some proposals for improvement and optimization measures of documentary fund allocation are put forward basing on summarizing of the research conducted in this thesis about the issues of the current documentary funding allocation in academic libraries.