Developed as a preliminary, literature-based study for a larger work in progress, this report summarizes the financial condition of academic libraries during the critical period from 1970 through the mid-1980's. The paper examines and addresses the issues which arose as libraries emerged from the 1960's, a time of unprecedented growth in library diversity, funding, and collections, which paralleled the growth of the academic institutions the libraries were intended and designed to serve. The issues that libraries encountered in this environment include: (1) increased scholarly productivity evidenced by the proliferation of journal publications, journal articles, monographs, and other reporting media; (2) growth in demand by scholars and researchers for increased stocks of relevant intellectual resources; (3) increasing rates of cost increases (a double hazard) for these relevant materials; (4) new and expensive information technologies that increased awareness of, and intellectual access to, the increasing number of needed research materials; (5) the growth in service demand to accomplish the physical access to these needed, relevant materials; (6) the emergence of the fee-for-service mechanism to reduce demand, support the costs of extended service, and expand the funding base for library operations; and (7) reduced funding or limited funding increases insufficient to keep pace with financial needs and demands that had been previously supported and maintained. An analysis and review of these issues and problems is provided, interpretations are cited, theoretical and practical responses noted, and representative statistics are compiled. (85 references) (Author/MAB)