How do you subdivide an inadequate budget for journals and databases?

It is very hard to answer that question especially since budgets for library resources are going down while the prices are increasing, often at a rate higher than inflation.  It seems that no matter what formula is used to compile a budget, somebody will be agrieved by the process.  Even a very large library can never please all its users.  When I worked for the Science and Technology Division of the New York Public Library from 1983-90, people were always asking for materials that we didn't own.

For many years at NJIT each department has been given 50 points to allocate to databases so that they may be prioritized.  On the surface this seems to be fair, but a large department has the same number of votes as a smaller one.  It is like the United States Senate where California and Alaska have the same number of votes.  How can a research university with doctoral programs ever think of cancelling IEEE Explore or Scifinder Scholar?  If the budget is cut further in the future, some core resources just may have to go.

Compiling the journals but by department is complicated.  Each department is given a dollar allocation based on the number of students, faculty and research dollars.  Every year each department must submit a prioritized list of journals.  Titles near the bottom of the list will not be ordered.  However, very often departments are not charged for a title since it is part of a journal package or part of an aggregator database.

I don't have an answer for this.  We have to try to please most of the people most of the time.