Des Moines Public Library, like the vast majority of its peers across the United States, is always participating in an awkward budget dance. Each year we set priorities, review past performance, and hope sufficient revenues will be available to deliver a quality product to the community.
The vast majority of library revenues are provided by the City of Des Moines. The stronger the City’s financial health the more likely the library’s budget will be secure. The opposite is also true. If taxable property in the city loses value or if the Franchise Fee is eliminated the library’s budget will shrink.
The library’s budget is supplemented by fines, fees, state aid, grants, and gifts. Fines, which I have addressed in an earlier blog, help offset the City’s overall tax support. Fee revenue is generated primarily from the rental of movies on DVD. State aid is used primarily to support the materials collection and underwrite Des Moines Public Library’s participation in open access. Grants are usually one time funds used to initiate a new program. Most library gifts are generated by the Library Foundation and are primarily used to underwrite programs like Summer Reading and AViD and supplement library investments in collection development and technology. Supplemental funds constitute approximately 10% of library revenue.
Total library revenue is between 7.5 and 8 million dollars. The question is what does it buy?
First, it buys open hours at all six library outlets. Currently the library is open for sixty-five unduplicated hours over a seven day period. Second, revenue is used to build a collection. Every library survey reassures us that most people still use their library to borrow material. Third, money is used to support a variety of programming for children, teens, and adults. Pre-school storytimes, an Anime Club, and author visits are all a part of the mix. Fourth, we spend money on technology. Des Moines Public Library is probably the premier public computing site in our area. In addition Des Moines is still a community where the digital divide is alive and well. The common thread and our biggest investment is staff. Without them nothing moves forward.
When we establish budgets our initial goal is to maintain current service levels. Our hope is to improve and expand service. Too often, shrinking revenue from one or several sources causes us to determine what services can be reduced without an overly negative impact on the public.
The library has an established budget for the 2008-2009 fiscal year. City revenue can be anticipated but the remaining revenue sources are less predictable. Odds are there will be no major shifts in library service in the coming year but…
Here at the library we are already beginning the budget dance for 2009-2010. Personally, I prefer the waltz.
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4 comments:
I commute to Des Moines from another county. I patronize the library primarily for audio books to listen to while I drive. I have been amazed that I am not charged a user fee since I don't reside in Des Moines. I would be more than willing to pay an annual fee, say $10.00 to $20.00 and feel I am getting great value.
What was wrong with the old library, If we had put some money into the beautiful building. We are to frequently loosing our history, by going for new modern buildings instead of keeping the old buildings up to code.
what does the library think about the effler case?
I would love to see the library add ebooks to the catalog. Fictionwise offers an ebook library service called Libwise and I am sure there are other options out there. Ebook are growing in popularity and would love to see this library explore this format more.
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