Question

University library has received an endowment which generates an annual income of $12,000. The library has decided that it will use all or some of this money to pay for new annual subscriptions to electronic versions of journals. There are six such journals under consideration. To help decide what to choose, for each journal they have three pieces of information:

(i) For each journal they know the annual subscription cost in dollars.
(ii) They know the number of times each journal is cited by articles in other jour- nals.
(iii) Based on input from every faculty member, they know the average evaluations of the journals based on a scale from 0 to 10.

Answer 1

The library must use mathematical strategies to allocate a $12,000 annual endowment for journal subscriptions, considering costs, citations, and faculty evaluations.

Step-by-step explanation:

The university library is considering the allocation of an endowment that generates $12,000 annually for new electronic journal subscriptions. They must decide which journals to subscribe to, given the cost of the subscriptions, citation frequency, and faculty evaluations on a scale from 0 to 10. This decision-making process involves mathematical reasoning and potentially the application of optimization techniques if they wish to maximize the value received from the endowment within the constraint of their yearly income.

An example such as 'Marie has a weekly budget of $24, which she likes to spend on magazines and pies' can help understand budget allocation problems through a simpler scenario. Marie's situation involves basic arithmetic and budgeting principles which can be applied to the more complex library endowment allocation problem. Furthermore, this real-world application of mathematics highlights the importance of databases as indispensable tools for accessing scholarly work, which the library endowment is meant to support. As costs and value considerations vary, libraries often must make strategic decisions about resource allocations, similar to Marie managing her personal budget.