VIVA: VIVA Funding
VIVA is funded through support from the Virginia General Assembly, augmented by the local institutional library budgets. Funding is allocated to VIVA by the General Assembly on a biennial basis.
Total funding for the 2018-19 year is estimated to be approximately $19.1 million, of which $8.8 million (46%) is from the Commonwealth budget, an estimated $7.6 million (40%) will come from the public institutions and an estimated $2.7 million (14%) will come from the participating private, nonprofit members. The General Assembly supported an increase of approximately $1 million in FY19 and $1.2 million in FY20 to support a new open and affordable course content program, sustaining funds for the shared public collections, and an increase to the Private Pooled Funds.
Overall, the vast majority of expenditures (more than 96%) continue to be for direct services for our member libraries, supporting students and faculty. Of the total budget in FY19, 91.5% was allocated for electronic collections, 2.3% was allocated for resource sharing and interlibrary loan, 1.9% was allocated for the new open and affordable course content program, 1.6% was allocated for travel and training, and 3.7% was spent on central administrative costs of any kind.
In addition to the resources acquired through the General Assembly's allocations and local institutional budgets, individual institutions have supported the VIVA project in a variety of ways, most notably through the significant amounts of time donated by dedicated library staff members throughout the Commonwealth.
VIVA libraries take pride in knowing that significant financial benefits have accrued to our members through the group purchases. As of July 1, 2018, the Virtual Library of Virginia (VIVA) has recorded over $1 billion in cost avoidance. This represents money saved over what would have been spent had each individual public institution acquired the VIVA resources independently. In most cases, these are resources that the local colleges and universities would not have been able to acquire in an electronic form without the Commonwealth's support for VIVA. VIVA not only saves money, but also levels the playing field across VIVA institutions and extends access for all of Virginia's students and faculty. Further significant cost avoidance has been achieved for subscriptions and acquisitions on behalf of the VIVA private colleges and universities.
About the VIVA Budget
VIVA began on July 1, 1994, and has been funded in two-year periods since then.