This study examines IT budget sufficiency, capital funding, technology refresh cycles, upgrade delays, collaboration with academic departments, strategic alignment, generative-AI subscription spending, cloud and AI spending, and technology budget composition.
The report finds that library IT budgets are only moderately sufficient. 12.12% say their current library IT budget is sufficient, while 42.42% call it moderately sufficient. One-third, 33.33%, say it is insufficient, though no respondent calls it critically insufficient.
Capital funding for equipment replacement is usually irregular. 60.61% receive capital funding irregularly, and 6.06% never receive it. Only 18.18% receive such funding annually, and 3.03% every two to three years.
Formal technology refresh planning is incomplete. 24.24% maintain a formal refresh cycle, 33.33% have one partially, and 33.33% have no formal cycle. Budget constraints delay essential upgrades at nearly every institution: 33.33% say frequently and 45.45% occasionally.
Software licensing dominates IT spending priorities, ranked first by 60.61%. In budget composition, digital subscriptions average 56.94% of the technology budget, followed by library service provider systems and enterprise software at 21.76%. Hardware averages 8.94%, all other technology 7.47%, and cloud and AI 4.41%.
AI spending remains highly skewed. Expected generative-AI subscription spending has a mean of $15,476.92 but a median of $0, while past-year spending on all cloud and AI services averages $62,221.43 with a median of $2,050. A copy of the report is available from