SUPPORTING INDIGENOUS STUDIES THROUGH BUDGET ALLOCATION
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Collection Management on
31 Oct 2017, available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01462679.2017.1337600

ABSTRACT
This study assesses acquisitions budget allocation for sustainable support of Indigenous Studies
(IS), and the challenge of addressing the needs of an emergent subject area. A survey of
collections librarians provided context for library allocation practices of other Canadian
institutions offering IS programs. An analysis of titles purchased before and after creating an IS
subject fund was performed; results reveal there was an increase in the number of IS titles
purchased annually after the fund was created. A defined subject fund allowed flexibility beyond
conventional library collections structures to address the unique needs of IS as an academic
discipline.

OVERLAPPING CONTEXTS
The purpose of this study was to evaluate Mount Royal University (MRU) Library’s acquisition
budget allocation practices to determine the effect of creating an Indigenous Studies (IS) subject
fund on collection growth in IS and to investigate how other Canadian libraries are supporting an
academic discipline that is rapidly growing in response to national Indigenization initiatives.
This study intersects with a variety of overlapping social, higher education, and library contexts.

INDIGENIZATION
Indigenization has become a best practice in Canadian universities, with initiatives ranging from
mandatory courses with Indigenous content to supporting Indigenous faculty, staff, and students,

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and reconsidering research ethics (MacDonald 2016). As Indigenization aligns with broad
patterns in higher education in Canada, it also becomes personal and local, about rooting
ourselves in the land where we reside. The ways that Indigenous knowledge is conceptualized in
the library should be accountable to the local Indigenous communities and responsive to the
ground beneath our feet.

ACQUISITIONS BUDGET ALLOCATION STRATEGIES
At MRU Library, subject librarians are responsible for selecting title-by-title one-time purchases
for the collection, and for managing the budget associated with those purchases. Large packages
of electronic content are chosen “centrally,” that is, as part of a collaborative process led by the
collections coordinator and incorporating advice from subject librarians. Subject librarians are
also responsible for selecting title-by-title journal subscriptions that supplement the packages of
subscription content licensed by the library.
Subject funds for one-time title-by-title purchases tend to align with the university’s
academic departments, programs, or faculties. The library’s subject funds change as programs
and offerings change. Like many other academic libraries, especially in undergraduate or
teaching institutions, the library uses a formula to allocate dollars for the majority of subject
funds for one time purchases (Walters 2011). The wide range of variables used in allocations
formulas in other libraries and the challenges associated with allocations formulas have been
well documented. Kitti Canepi’s meta-analysis explored 75 funding allocation formulas and
found the most frequently used factors included student enrollment numbers, cost/price of
materials, use as measured by circulation, and number of faculty (Canepi 2007). While
Canepi recommends libraries include these factors in an allocation formula, she is careful to

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acknowledge that libraries may find that other factors represent their priorities as well: “the
challenge for every library is to create an allocation formula that best incorporates the aspects
most important to the specific institution” (p. 21). Others have addressed the problems with
allocation formulas. Cross (2011) argues that formulas should be constructed and used with
extreme caution, because the inputs libraries tend to use reflect value judgments rather than
objectivity.
Certainly no formula is perfect; the library’s allocation formula has undergone many
revisions over the years as library and university priorities change. Currently the following data
is used in an attempt to capture internal or institutional factors as well as external costs and
volumes:
1.

Faculty full-time equivalent (FTE) counts.

2.

Materials costs and publication volume in the area.

3.

Level. The formula reflects whether the subject is a 2-year or 4-year program, and
whether a major or minor is offered.

4.

The nature of assignments in the subject area. Here, a weighting is assigned by the
subject librarian in consultation with the collections coordinator. If students are
required to rely heavily on content that exists as one-time purchases (monographic
content and some audiovisual content, mostly) to complete assignments, the
weighting is higher and therefore the allocation increases.

Applying the formula is not ideal in all subject areas: in some cases, data used in the formula
may not exist; or, the area may be new and require extra funding initially to build a solid base of
materials. In these few cases, subject librarians and the collections coordinator collaborate to
define a reasonable annual amount. Examples of these funds include “Student Wellness” and

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“University Administration”, as well as funds in support of areas on campus including the
Academic Development Center and Student Learning Services. There is also a “General” fund
for titles that fall into a range of disciplines.

INDIGENOUS STUDIES AS AN ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE
The themes of IS, as described by one of the founders of the Native American and Indigenous
Studies Association, include:
a commitment to the fundamental concept of sovereignty; a privileging or centering of
Native names, experiences, voices, and narratives; an inclusive orientation that favors
multiple, complicating, diverse perspectives over a monolithic ‘one size or story fits all’
approach; a commitment to the health, well-being and vigor of life in Indian country;
responsiveness to the central issues and concerns of Native nations; a dedication to
transform the institutional structures of the dominant society, such as schools, colleges,
and universities – however frustratingly slow and incremental that process can be.
(Lomawaima 2007).
Terminology in this academic discipline shifts frequently, as programs can be named Native
Studies, First Nations Studies, Native American Studies, Aboriginal Studies, or, even “IndianEskimo Studies,” the original name for Trent University’s 1969 groundbreaking program in
Canada (Newhouse, McCaskill, and Milloy 2002). For the sake of simplicity, the phrase
Indigenous Studies (IS) is used to refer to all such programs.

INDIGENOUS STUDIES AT MOUNT ROYAL UNIVERSITY

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MRU is an undergraduate institution in Canada, offering 50 programs, including 12 bachelor’s
degrees, 2 diplomas, and 5 certificate programs. Approximately 12,000 students attend either
full-time or part-time. The first IS courses at MRU were approved in 2010; additional courses
from other disciplines that had significant Indigenous content rounded out the requirements for a
minor. The academic discipline of IS has been rooted in the History department in this
institution; the first faculty member hired to teach the first courses was hired by History in 2011.

CHALLENGES IN COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT FOR INDIGENOUS STUDIES
This is an academic discipline that “disrupts the certainty of disciplinary knowledges produced in
the twentieth century, when the study of Indigenous peoples was largely the knowledge/power
domain of non-Indigenous scholars.” (Moreton-Robinson 2016). While many materials are
published with Indigenous content (“about Indigenous people”), few are concerned with
Indigenous peoples as their audience (“for Indigenous people”) and fewer still are written by
Indigenous authors (“by Indigenous people”). Recognizing that the discipline is concerned with
querying the structures of the academy, library collection development strategies should not rely
solely on major vendors and conventional collection development tools; as disciplinary
structures these tools will be inadequate because they fail to capture or handle the variety of
resources that are core to IS: oral histories, non-print objects, and community-created content.
The relative newness of the academic discipline belies the extensive knowledge systems
that make up Indigenous ways of knowing: what Pelletier and Gercken refer to as “old ways as
new methods” (2006). Battiste notes that Indigenous knowledges are transmitted in a variety of
ways beyond the written word (2002); this discipline uses a distinct lens to identify credible,
authoritative works differently than many other areas of study (Tuhiwai Smith 2012; Roy 2015).

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While the field is “multicultural, multinational, and multidisciplinary,” and therefore well served
by collecting in adjacent disciplines, there is no certainty that titles will be purchased through an
adjacent discipline’s subject fund, particularly around oral histories and “Indigenous-centered
approaches to knowledge…where the object of study is colonizing power in its multiple forms,
whether the gaze is on Indigenous issues or on Western knowledge production” (MoretonRobinson 2016). With these challenges in mind, purchasing titles requires creative solutions to
find materials not found in the offerings from mainstream academic publishers: working directly
with tribal colleges, investigating self-published community materials, and tracking down out of
print titles (Peterson, 2004; Kelly, 2016). For librarians collecting in IS, autonomy and flexibility
are essential.

SUPPORTING INDIGENOUS STUDIES AS AN INTERDISCIPLINARY AREA OF STUDY
Before 2011, subject librarians at MRU Library purchased Indigenous-focused content using a
range of subject funds. When the IS minor was first offered in the 2011/2012 academic year, the
History librarian took the lead in collecting in support of the courses while librarians collecting
in other areas also identified titles for purchase. In 2012-2013, an IS librarian completed an
Indigenous content gap-fill assessment. As a result of that assessment, it was clear that ongoing
focused collecting in this area was necessary to maintain a strong and responsive library
collection, and therefore a dedicated budget line was created for IS acquisitions in the 201/2015
academic year, and again in 2015/2016. In 2016-2017, the IS subject fund was incorporated into
the one-time acquisitions budget formula alongside most other subject areas.

INTERNAL COLLECTIONS ANALYSIS: METHODOLOGY

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Collections data from MRU Library was analyzed to assess how changes to IS allocations
strategies over time affected the collection particularly with respect to annual growth rates. Title
reports across subject areas were generated going back to 2009, five years before an IS subject
fund was created. A qualitative content analysis strategy that included segmenting line items
using a pre-set coding criteria was applied, coding a score to all titles that fit within IS call
number ranges and key words, using Merriam’s methodology (2009). Coding criteria included
select Library of Congress call number ranges unique to IS, in combination with text search
keywords (including Indian; Metis; Inuit; Eskimo; Coloni*; Native; Indigenous; Aboriginal; First
Nat*; as well as individual nations like Cree, Blackfoot, Innu, Mi’kmaq). The numbers of titles
purchased that met criteria across subject funds were calculated within each subject fund and
also totaled annually to determine whether there was growth in the IS collection over time and
specifically whether defining an IS subject fund affected annual acquisition rates in IS content.

RESULTS
Adjacent subject funds that supported IS from 2009-2016 were History (158 titles), English (78
titles), Anthropology (69 titles), Sociology (46 titles), Political Science (24 titles), Nursing (22
titles), Social Work (22 titles), Women’s Studies (20 titles), Criminal Justice (19 titles), General
(10 titles) and Child Studies (8 titles) (See Fig. 1).

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105 titles were purchased for the collection in the first year that IS was defined as a
subject fund (2014/2015), representing a 19.3% increase over the previous 5-year average of 88
titles. The following year (2015/2016) was almost identical: 104 titles were purchased.
In the 2009-2010 budget year, 84 titles were purchased that met the criteria. There was an
increase in the number of titles purchased the following year (101 titles), which was likely due to
a library impact assessment conducted by the History librarian and the History department in
preparation for the IS minor. In the following three years, the number of titles purchased
annually hovered between 82 and 91 (82 titles purchased in 2011/2012; 82 titles in 2012/2013;
91 titles in 2013/2014.). The five year average, before defining an IS subject fund, was 88 titles

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per year. After creating that fund, annual acquisitions numbers rose significantly to 105 titles in
2014/2015 and 104 titles in 2015/2016 (See Fig. 2.) .

Does the establishment of a dedicated subject fund affect the number of IS titles collected
in adjacent subject areas? Numbers of IS titles purchased annually in other areas decreased only
slightly after creating an IS subject fund. In 2014/2015, librarians in adjacent subject areas
selected 79 IS titles, a decrease of only 10.2% from the previous 5-year average of 88 titles per
year; in 2015/2016, they selected 67 titles. The decrease in IS titles acquired annually in adjacent
areas was small enough to suggest that creating a fund did not simply transfer the work of IS
collection to this new fund; rather, the IS librarian was able to select titles that other librarians
would not have purchased. A cursory look at specific titles collected using the IS subject fund
suggests that they will fall within Lomawaima’s (2007) definition of IS as a unique academic
discipline rather than supplementing anthropological or historical perspectives on Indigenous
peoples. Other factors could have influenced growth, including increased volume of publication,

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increased awareness of publication in IS, or subject librarians responding to the emphasis on
Indigenization on campus. Having a dedicated subject expert collecting in the discipline and
collaborating with other librarians is likely a significant factor in the growth as well. Overall the
growth in the collection after establishing a dedicated subject fund is encouraging and scalable.

EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENTAL SCAN: METHODOLOGY
In order to determine the Canadian academic context of library acquisitions budget support for
IS, determining how other Canadian institutions with IS offerings were supporting their
programs through library acquisitions was necessary. In Canada, which institutions’ websites
provide details about there is programs of study? Evaluating web content has its idiosyncrasies
and each website poses potential challenges for researchers. A lack of commonly imposed design
and usability standards resulted in investigators evaluating the website as a whole since
individual or intuitive pages which would present the desired data are not uniform (Weare and
Lin 2000). In Fall 2016, institutions’ websites were analyzed by utilizing a traditional approach
of selecting a sample in accordance with the research question, defining categories for coding,
and creating and implementing a method for each researcher to check the reliability of how the
websites were coded. Three units of analysis were identified, attempting to align with a
traditional content analysis approach (Krippendorf 1980): the sampling unit (academic institution
in Canada), the recording unit (programs of study offered at the institution) and the context unit
(levels of study the institution offers in relation to IS). Developing a mutually exclusive scheme
of categorization was paramount: clear parameters were developed for coders to evaluate the site,
having two coders review all sites to increase the reliability of the interpretation of results to add
a layer of reliability and validity in formulating the survey sample pool (Julien 2008). Certain

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institutions were excluded from the analysis based on program rigidity (for example, theological
institutions that offer programs with a narrow focus), but did include technical schools and art
schools as preliminary observations found that they did offer accreditation in areas relating to IS
or Indigenous culture as well as tribal colleges who offered programs of study that remained
consistent with how Lomawaima defines IS (2007) (See Table 1).

The website content analysis identified 109 Canadian academic centers as institutions
who offered IS programs. Nine of these institutions were excluded from the survey pool because
library contact email information was unavailable on their website or not discoverable through
internet searches. An online survey was distributed to collections librarians at 100 academic
institutions across Canada. The survey was open for two weeks and received 30 responses (30%
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response rate). There are a variety of factors that influence survey response rate, such as length
of survey, establishing the correct contacts for deployment and survey design (Sheehan 2001).
Acquisitions budget allocation may be political and many librarians may not have been
forthcoming in disclosing their practice.
The goal of the survey was to investigate two main areas of inquiry:
1. Do academic libraries within institutions allocate subject funds specific to their IS
programs and
2. If they do not, how are they supporting IS through other funding strategies?
An additional question about the type of program the respondent's institution offered acted as
a mechanism of confirmation that they did indeed offer credit programs in IS and gave additional
context to how they responded to fund allocation questions. Mixed methods were applied in
deploying a survey asking three questions designed to elicit both quantitative and qualitative
responses:
1. “Describe what type of Indigenous Studies programs your institution offers?”
Multiple response question (respondents could choose more than one option)
2. “Does your library currently allocate acquisition budget dollars to a fund specific to
Indigenous Studies programs?”
3. “If no, describe how you support Indigenous Studies programs through library
acquisitions?”
The rationale for mixing qualitative and quantitative data within one study is grounded in
the fact that neither quantitative nor qualitative methods are sufficient, by themselves, to capture
the trends and details of a situation (Ivankova, Creswell and Stick 2008). Acknowledging this,
the survey was designed to give respondents a venue to explain how they were supporting IS

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outside of yes or no responses. Qualitative responses were coded using an identical
methodological approach as in establishing the survey pool through web content analysis (see
above). Sub-codes parsed out other trends in qualitative responses received.

TYPES OF INDIGENOUS STUDIES PROGRAMS OFFERED: RESULTS
Respondents could choose more than one option for this multiple response question. From 30
respondents, 20 institutions offer a certificate or diploma, 11 offer a minor, 10 offer a major or a
Bachelor’s degree, 7 offer graduate programs, and 2 offer other coursework or areas of
concentration in IS.

ALLOCATING TO A SPECIFIC INDIGENOUS STUDIES FUND: RESULTS
Half (n=15) of all 30 respondents allocate acquisition budget dollars to a fund specific to IS. 14
respondents do not, and 1 skipped the question (See Fig 3).

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Respondents who indicated that they did not currently allocate acquisition budget funds to an IS
subject fund were asked to elaborate on alternative ways they support IS at their institutions (See
Fig. 4).

All 14 respondents who answered that they do not allocate acquisition budget dollars to subject
fund specific to IS provided a qualitative response to describe how they support IS through their
acquisitions budget. In coding these free text responses, three major trends emerged (See Fig 4):
1. “Libraries that did not allocate funds specific to any disciplines at their institution but
relied on a general fund”
2. “Libraries that relied on adjacent disciplines’ funds to support the interdisciplinary nature
of Indigenous Studies”
3. “Libraries that had no monograph funding and relied heavily on donations or acquired
materials by request from department or faculty or on an ‘as needed’ basis”

DISCUSSION
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Half of university libraries who did not allocate to an IS fund indicated that they also did not
dedicate money specific to any discipline, but rather, all their collection development flows from
a general budget; one library indicated that they had recently shifted from subject allocation to a
broader general budget allocation practice. In the literature on allocation practices, a number of
libraries report a similar strategy of moving away from subject fund allocation in order to
increase fluidity and flexibility across their funds by aggregating fund lines into general clusters
to encourage interdepartmental and multidisciplinary resources (Weston 2004). Holistic
Collection Development (HCD) is also prevalent in fund allocation discussions, in that university
libraries are focusing on curriculum-driven, rather than format driven collections practices (e.g.:
separating monograph budgets from serials budgets) in part because of the rising cost of serials
in relation to monograph spending, and have revised their allocation practices based on
institutional priority rather than discipline priority (Kusik and Vargas 2009; Bodi and MaierO’Shea 2005). Discipline-focused fund allocation may not necessarily be the only model to
sustainably support new programs.
Sustainable collection building is a rather loose term that had been addressed in
discussions most recently driven by the serials crisis, as a push to shift emphasis to Open Access
publishing (Walters 2008; Frazier 2005; Mitchell and Lorbeer 2009) or challenges related to
shifting to patron driven acquisition models (Walters 2012). A library collection is sustainable
when it upholds the current curricula and can be maintained without significant degradation over
time (Walters 2008). Specifically, subject fund allocations may be a mechanism to ensure that
areas of studies offered by will receive equitable and consistent – equity meaning funds are
distributed equitably based on applied consistent variables (Walters 2011). The MRU Library’s
internal analysis on allocating dollars to a defined subject fund supports this definition of

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sustainability. This approach aligned with half of survey respondents who support IS in a similar
manner with a defined subject fund; the other half described alternatives that fit their institution’s
needs.
Three libraries who do not allocate to an IS subject fund responded that they support IS
collections through other subject funds, similar to MRU Library’s practice prior to the creation
of an IS subject fund in 2014/2015. Collection development for IS through adjacent subject
funds was effective initially, but the question remained: was it efficient for IS to remain the
responsibility of librarians managing other traditional subject funds? At libraries with multiple
subject librarians seeking to maximize the impact of limited budgets, a constant redrawing of
boundaries between one’s subject domain and another’s often ensues and a subject can easily be
neglected or lost (Searing 1996). It is unclear if relying on adjacent budget lines can effectively
support burgeoning subject areas in perpetuity.
What happens when librarians have a limited acquisitions budget to support institutional
directions? There is often disconnection between approval of new programs and a sustained
increase to funding to libraries to support such programs (Chan 2008). Four survey respondents
indicated that they only acquired material upon request or through donation or
endowment. Many academic library administrators have discarded the concept that funding
solely from the operating budget allocated by the campus is sufficient and they have accepted the
need to supplement it with from external sources such as grants, donations, and endowments
(Simmons-Weldon, Donovan and Bender 2008). One respondent specifically noted that due to
insufficient institutional support they no longer supported departmental monograph purchasing at
all. This speaks to larger concerns: flat or zero increase library budgets cannot sustain responsive
collections and librarians may need to support collections creatively through external measures.

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Due to the interdisciplinary nature of IS, collection development in this area benefits
institutional initiatives beyond curricular activities. Two survey respondents made reference to
their own efforts to support Indigenization beyond IS as a an academic discipline: “Currently we
are actively selecting materials to support our First Nations Initiative as part of this college-wide
mission” and “We have been actively purchasing content in other subject funds and are now
using endowment funds to purchase additional material.” Though the focus on internal
collections analysis was IS as an academic discipline, collection development at MRU Library in
this discipline also supports university-wide Indigenization efforts.
The institution’s Indigenous Strategic Plan, approved in 2015, sets five goals:
Indigenizing the university, culturally respectful research, bridge-building with Indigenous
education stakeholders, support for Indigenous learners, and respectful and inclusive curricula
and pedagogies. The library sees itself playing a prominent role in each of these goals of
Indigenization. The physical spaces of a library, cataloguing and classification (Lee 2011;
Lougheed, Moran and Callison 2015; Doyle, Lawson and Dupont, 2015), and the way
information literacy is taught can reflect Indigenous ways of knowing (Lee 2008; Roy, Lilley
and Luehrsen 2011); collection development, particularly how sustainable funding is created for
and committed to certain areas and programs, is an often-overlooked space for this work.
Defining a dedicated subject fund for IS helps ensure that the program receives
continuous support with collections and further aligns collections practice with the wider
Indigenization initiatives taking place on campus. This is a growing academic discipline,
particularly on Canadian campuses. There are unique challenges for collection development in
IS; ensuring librarians have autonomy and flexibility in making collection development
decisions is one way to address some of these challenges.

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MRU Library has tried a variety of strategies over time to sustainably support the
Indigenous collection through budget acquisitions allocation, beginning with relying on adjacent
subject funds for purchasing IS materials, to defining IS as a subject fund. Internal collections
analysis confirmed that the most recent approach to addressing the needs of this program was
effective: one-time monograph spending on IS titles and the number of titles acquired annually
increased after defining IS as a subject fund, suggesting that dedicating funds and resources to
areas of study contributes to the growth of the collection. In surveying Canadian academic
collections librarians, libraries were using similar strategies to support their IS programs. IS as an
academic discipline should be supported through a sustainable acquisitions model that fits the
needs of the institution.
If this study were revisited, specifically referencing sustainable models of allocation
would provide a clearer analysis of respondent’s alternative strategies. As well, collections data
at other libraries could be incorporated: with a dedicated IS subject fund, did acquisitions rates
improve or did their collection grow or become richer? While collection size or annual growth
rates are not always indicators of collection strength, they are not insignificant measures.
Because this study found only a small decrease in IS titles being ordered in adjacent disciplines
after establishing a dedicated IS subject fund, it seems likely that both defining the IS subject
fund and hiring a dedicated IS subject librarian enabled the addition of content that otherwise
would not have been purchased. This overall growth may be due as well to the growth of IS as an
academic discipline and the subsequent growth in publishing in this area: there are simply more
titles available now. Another follow-up to this investigation will be to continue to evaluate
internal collections data to measure if there are differences in IS collecting patterns when IS is
fully integrated into the acquisitions budget allocation formula.

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