The state of cost sharing and collaborative collection development at AACSB-accredited universities

This study examined cost sharing arrangements and collaborative collection development between academic libraries and AACSB-accredited business schools in the United States. Despite the potential impact of such arrangements, their operational and financial implications remain understudied in library and information science literature. Research combined quantitative analysis of AACSB's BSQ Finances Module Report and NCES's Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) with qualitative interviews of business and collection development librarians. Of 527 librarians contacted at AACSB-accredited institutions, 155 responded (29 %), with 69 agreeing to interviews about current or former cost sharing agreements and 66 indicating no such arrangements existed at their institutions. Using applied thematic analysis, researchers identified seven themes and 17 subthemes from interview transcripts analyzed in Taguette. The quantitative data, analyzed through Airtable, revealed that 13 % of the institutions we contacted had experience with cost sharing arrangements. These arrangements were most prevalent at public R1 and R2 institutions. Notably, most agreements lacked formal documentation through memoranda of understanding, which contributed to some of the challenges experienced in managing resources. Future studies should investigate whether similar arrangements exist in other disciplines and identify best practices for implementing shared collection development strategies.