Pricing Models of Monographs and their Impact on Collection Development

The paper attempts to study the pattern of expenditure and the number of books acquired in the five disciplines each from the three major subject groups of Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities in IGM Library, University of Hyderabad, for the period 2004–05 to 2009–10. The impact of increasing prices of monographs and foreign exchange conversion rates on the acquisitions were estimated. The annual increase of prices, their dispersion and consistency over the period were examined by applying reliable statistical methods. The average increase of prices was compared with the Indian inflation. Finally, price index numbers were compiled to find out the real increase of prices among the subjects. The results of the study indicate that no uniform policy was adopted in spending the budget amount for each discipline. The impact of increasing prices of monographs is very high on acquisitions and the foreign exchange conversion rates had very little influence on the prices of monographs. Overall, the prices of monographs increased by almost two to three times over the Indian inflation. The price index numbers also showed an increase of two to three times over the base year. Whereas the budget has decreased by six to eight times during the period of study.