I had great responses (which are below) to my question about
determining a value of a law library collection for insurance purposes.
Thanks to the following wonderful Librarians for sharing their
experiences and ideas: Margaret M. Axtmann, Dorene Smith, Jon S.
Schultz, Deborah Melnick, Mike Miller, Kathryn McTigue-Floyd, Robert S.
Ryan, Lenie Ott, Lynn Merring, and Cynthia Hiris. I hope that's everyone
- if not - I still thank you!!
Also Legal Information Management Reports Vol 3, Number 2, Spring 1991.
Appraising and Selling the Law Library Collection by Robert D. Murphy,
Jr. Was helpful.
Here they are::::
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I had to come up with a method for evaluating our collection earlier
this year and found a number of resources that were helpful. There are
some law-lib postings on topic (going back as far as 1992!) that suggest
different methods of estimating value, but the one that seemed to come
up most often was simply multiplying your volume count by the average
current cost per volume. We all know what "average cost" of a law book
is right! There are two summaries of accounting methods from different
libraries in a 12/09/93 law lib post from Jacqueline S. Wright, and in a
6/19/01 post from Martha Goldman. These can both be found in the
archive.
Our school decided, as a quick and dirty method of accounting, to take
the total budget for the last year for books added to the collection,
and divide it by the number of books added to the collection. the
formula looks something like this:
Total book budget last year / # books added last year = average cost per
book
average cost per book * # volumes in collection = estimated value of
collection.
Some other considerations were whether we should add our total
supplements and subscriptions budget, for insurance purposes, because
these were renewing costs every year and whether we should add some cost
for processing (i.e. staff time to order, catalog, shelve etc.) as these
would also be costs associated with replacing the collection.
Our accountants and auditors approved this method, but the school is
still considering hiring an outside company to do a formal appraisal of
the collection at some point in the future.
In addition to the resources listed in Mike Miller's posting, we
consulted:
Do You Know the Real Value of Your Library? by Thomas J. Hennen Jr.,
Library Journal, June 15, 2001, p.48-50.
Appraisals: a simple tool to protect you and your "bottom line" by David
P. Thorpe, Bottom Line 10, no.1 (1997) p.11-15 Assets and Depreciation
or. Only an Accountant Would Claim Books Lose Value, by Herbert Snyder,
Library Administration and Management v.12 no.4 p.226-229 (Fall 98)
Hope this helps, and saves someone else some valuable time when this
question comes up.
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Don't know whether this information has already been offered. Two
sources our library frequently refers to when faced with this question:
1. Insurance manual for libraries by Gerald E. Myers. ALA 1977. (there
may well be a later ed.?)
2. 66 LLJ 241 (1973)
3. Legal Research & Law Library Management. Rev. ed. 2004. chapter 34A
"Insuring Against Library Disasters".
Hope this helps.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
---There was one posting about this on law lib - see e-mail entitled "Summary: Insuring the Lib.-Valuation" from Martha Goldman on 6/19/01. Also, there was one on law-acq entitled "Valuing a Library" from Susan von Schrader on 8/28/01. I have a flyer from Hein indicating that they have an appraisal service through their Second Hand Book Department (800-496-4346). There is an interesting article in Library Journal, June 15, 2001 p. 48 by Thomas Hennen, "Do You Know the Real Value of Your Library". While it doesn't go into specifics about the valuation, it does discuss new accounting rules, GASB 34, which are prompting many public libraries to value their collections. There may be more discussion about valuation techniques in the general library literature in response to these new rules.
--------------------------------------- We had our collection evaluated by an insurance consultant. He's well recognized in the Toronto area. Although he did come in to the library to look at the collection, he may be able to assist you over the phone with a few quick numbers. He can be contacted: Law Library Insurance & Market Evaluations Ken Barnett 905-426-2842 ----------------------------- About 2 years ago, we valued our library collections. While the reason was not disclosed, I suspected the new GASB standards. Some took the replacement cost for each title at used market prices, some an average dollar cost per volume multiplied by the number of volumes, and some took recent publisher information per title. I found Claitor's online is a good source for used book collections. Historical out-of-print material was much more difficult to locate and to estimate. ---------------------------------- Our library lost about 175,000 volumes in Tropical Storm Allison in 2001. FEMA agreed to the estimate of $100 per volume for half of the collection and $150 per volume for the other half. In addition, they agreed to $90 per volume for processing, giving us a total of $215 per volume average cost. FEMA's awards to us were based on these figures, which were suggested by their own expert at the Law Library of Congress. Our total awards came to over $40 million, which we spent a bit more economically than the award indicates. Nevertheless, I suggest that you set an average value per book. Be careful not to underestimate your cost, and keep in mind that our replacement costs, incurred in 2001, are now considerably higher than they were three years ago. Once you set a per-volume valuation, then figure out what portion of your collection you really want to insure. Of course you have seen plenty of books free for the cost of postage, and you should make a best estimate of what you would really buy if your collection disappeared. Also, keep in mind that most disasters do not wipe out the whole collection, and factor that into your plan. Jon S. Schultz Professor of Law University of Houston Law Center My library disaster website: http://www.themasterofdisaster.com <http://themasterofdisaster.com/> ----------------------- We had our library appraised in 2001 when it was donated to a university library (it was not appraised for insurance purposes, which I believe is somewhat different). At that time we hired an appraiser who spent about a week onsite and considerable time at his office to value the collection. We found some appraisers through the American Society of Appraisers. There was a way to search the web site to identify appraisers of books. Perhaps there is also some background information on the website or the web sites of some of the appraisers on their methods of appraising collections. --------------------------- I haven't done it for years but I came up with an average cost per volumes and multiplied it by the number of volumes in the collection. ------------------------------ The Oregon Department of Revenue publishes a list every year of law library valuations for insurance purposes. Here's a link:
http://www.dor.state.or.us/Property/LawLib.pdf
Perhaps something similar is published in your state. ------------------- Once again - thanks to all!
Kathy Vance Director of Library Services Miller, Johnson, Snell & Cummiskey, P.L.C. 250 Monroe NW, Suite 800 Grand Rapids, MI 49503
Phone: (616) 831-1875 Fax: (616) 988-1875 E-Mail: vancek@mjsc.com www.millerjohnson.com
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