'
The financial plan tells your money where to go so that you don’t have to spend your time finding out where it went.' - Peter Drucker
Budgeting is a major concern of a learning
community. Although you may be in charge of a single budget, it's
essential that the teacher librarian understand the finances of the
entire school. As part of the larger learning community, it's also
essential to build relationships with others who deal with financial
issues. Whether brainstorming ways to buy data projectors or seeking
ideas for funding literature circle projects, the media specialist must
be both frugal and flexible.
This section of the course contains the following related topics you'll want to investigate:
Budget Planning
Acquisition
Accounting
Funding Sources
Read Miller, Pat (Jan 2003). Establishing a Budget (Access requires login). School Library Media Activities Monthly; 19(5), 37-38. Retrieved from Education Full Text database.
Advice for library media specialists on establishing a budget is provided.
"
Publicly financed libraries
in schools, cities, and universities are basically supported through
some combination of sales tax, properly tax, and state income tax.
Welcome to the triple whammy of declining retail sales, diminishing real
estate values, and rising unemployment. You can't get blood out of a
rock. I know this sounds defeatist and pessimistic and it's not
politically correct, but it is what it is. Wishing will not make it so."
Excerpted from Manley, Will (Jun / Jul 2010).
Winning the Budget Wars (Access requires login). American Libraries: 41(6/7); 96. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.
What's involved with managing a budget?
Think about the information your gather as you walk into a
school library or media center for the first time. Immediately, you
begin to sense the investment that has been made and sustained. It takes
money to build a school library. Does it look inviting, comfortable? Is
it drab, dusty, and disintegrating? Is it a place that you want to
spend some time? Are there things here that you would like to have time
to look at and explore? Does it draw you in?
In most cases, the amount of money spent to establish and maintain a
library media center is cumulatively, very large. However if the initial
expenditures made to design, build, and operate the learning center are
allowed to irresponsibly languish, then its current value can also
quickly diminish. In order to maintain or turn-around the facility’s
trend, a library administrator must effectively and sometimes creatively
manage and lead in the budget processes. It takes money to keep the
library a viable component of the learning community.
Read Piemmons, Andy (Mar 2010). Student Voice, Student Choice: Students as Part of the Budgeting Process. Georgia Library Media Association.
A good budget manager doesn't need to be a math whiz. Instead the person must be a collaborator, steward, and thinker.
Collaborator.
More than anything else, effectively administering budgets for a school
library program does not begin with things or money - - it begins with
your community of people. To effectively secure and allocate budget
monies, you must collaborate with your students, fellow teachers, your
administration and other community members; i.e., staff, school board
members, parents, etc.
Steward.
Establish yourself as a excellent steward; a leader seeking a wide array
of input, basing purchase recommendations and choices on sound needs
identification, carefully monitoring and accounting for all
expenditures, implementing and assessing the results, and communicating
to the learning community. Establish yourself as a credible budget
administrator.
Thinker. Among
varied job locations, the amount or degree of the school library media
specialist’s involvement in the budget process can range from being very
slight to being integrally involved at almost every level. For example,
in some buildings the SLMS may have input on the development of the
budget, making suggestions to their principal and/or central office
administrator(s). In other cases, they may be notified of monies
available for spending in specific categories at a given time in the
fiscal year.
The expression, “make the most of what is available” comes to
mind. Sometimes that means not only carefully utilizing the monies
directly allocated to the school library media program, but also looking
for additional funding from other sources and helping others spend
their monies for media materials and equipment.
Unfortunately, the money isn't always available where it's needed.
Read (May 2008).
More Love; Less Money (
Access requires login).
School Library Journal; 54(5), 14. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.
Discusses a study report from the
American Association of School Librarians. A link is provided to the full study report:
The State of America's Libraries that includes a section on school libraries.
What are the budget responsibilities?
Taking into account the evidence that school library media
programs do have a positive effect on student achievement and a schools
overall effectiveness, the funding and expenditures for the school
library media center are directly related to student achievement.
Therefore the school library media administrator makes important
decisions on the use of those budgeted monies.
Teacher librarians are typically in charge of specific lines
in the budget. However, media specialists can often influence other
budgets by collaborating with teachers and administrators.
Typical Areas.
Monies spent by school library media specialists are sometimes limited
to the following main categories of budget expenditures:
- salaries and benefits for professionals and staff
- facilities and their operations and maintenance
- capital items such as new and replacement equipment and furniture
- materials (books, periodicals, & multimedia resources)
Related Areas.
In many schools, the library media specialist is directly involved in
the decision-making and spending of ESEA Title I funds or other
allocated funding such as government monies that must be spent in
specific categories. If the principal has not asked you to particular in
budget discussions, explore ways to get involved. For example,
collaborate with Title I teachers on other projects as a way to begin
budget discussions.
The library media specialist is in the unique situation of
being able to see the "big picture" of the school's information needs.
Multiple budgets can sometimes be used to fund large-scale projects. In
some cases, money can be pooled and resources shared among departments
through the library media center.
For example, if each department were to contribute money, it
might be possible to purchase laptop computers that could be checked out
from the library.
Read Schmidt, Cindy (Oct 2007). Whine or Woo - - Which Describes You? (And Be Honest with Yourself) (Access requires login). Teacher Librarian; 35(1), 73-74. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.
The author recommends several possible
sources of money for school libraries including curriculum funding,
grants and technology funds.
How are collection development and curriculum development tied to budgeting?
All three of these activities must constantly be on the mind of a
library media specialist. In order to purchase the materials needed to
support the curriculum, funding is needed. Because student learning
occurs throughout the school, there are often many budgets involved with
a single learning experience.
The teacher librarian must develop partnerships with classroom
teachers and administrators to build authentic, information inquiry
learning experiences for students.
Example - the second
grade teacher and library media specialist design a unit focusing on
community workers. The project involves a field trip funded by the PTA; a
set of books acquired with Title I money; two new DVDs, 4 fiction
books, and 8 nonfiction books from the library budget; and a communities
clip art package funded by the technology club.
Example - a high
school teacher and the library media specialist team on the development
of a new globalization course. The local Lion's Club provides a
mini-grant to purchase a class set of
The Lexus and the Olive Tree
by Thomas Friedman; the library subscribes to an online global
perspectives magazine, purchases five new books, and a DVD; the
technology department establishes Blackboard space for a book discussion
between Lion's Club members and students.
In each case, various funding sources were used to accomplish an important curriculum-related activity.
"
Given the freedom to choose
resources for assignments, students used the Web exclusively, unless a
print source was required by the assignment. Since the library was
valued as a social space and for its access to the digital world via our
computers and students' mobile devices, I made the decision to spend
the majority of my budget on databases, eBooks, and films (videos)."
Excerpted from Waite, Mary Jane (Mar / Apr 2010).
A Room With a View (
Access requires login).
Knowledge Quest: 38(4), 58-61. Retrieved from Education Full Text database.
What's the basis of school library media budgets?
Read Franklin, Pat and Stephens, Claire (Jan 2006). It'$ time to Write a Budget! (Access requires login). School Library Media Activities Monthly; 22(5), 46-47. Retrieved from Education Full Text database.
Authors provide insights for school library media specialists on drafting a budget for media centers.
School library media budgets are usually based on one of the following wants/needs (Callison, 2003):
- format
- services
- circulation
- curriculum
School fund accounts are often categorized by information
format: books, periodicals, nonprint, computer software, computer
equipment, etc. Budgets based upon services are categorized/grouped
under headings such as curriculum resources, recreational reading,
general reference, management costs, special projects, etc.
These
budget divisions often place varied outcomes in competition with each
other for available monies. Some teacher librarians and administrators
maintain that budgets for their library media collections should be
based upon “evidence of use.” Hence circulation data would be gathered
to find distribution shifts and budget allocations would shift
accordingly. Those areas showing more use or demand would receive an
expanding budget portion.
Check Your Understanding
Information Power: Program Administration - Principle 7.
Sufficient funding is fundamental to the success of the library media program. (p. 100, 109)
Read
Key Instructional Word: Collection Development - Budget (PDF document) by Daniel Callison from SLMAM, 2003. Then examine a
Fourth Grade Economics Inquiry Project (PDF file) and the
Inquiry Budget Template (Word document).
Complete the template for your own collaborative inquiry project.
Then, develop a spreadsheet with the specifications for each item to be
purchased with library funds.
Make It Real
Identify and discuss the budgetary aspects of a specific library media center.
Visit a teacher librarian. Interview this person regarding
issues related to financial procedures including creating purchase
orders, budget reports, and other documents.
Use the following questions for guidance:
General Budget Questions
- Do you have a standard procedure for acquiring materials? Is it written down?
- What are the accounting procedures? Who is involved?
- Do you have standard forms that are required from your district?
- Do you have a printed budget that is supplied by the
district, or do you submit a budget for approval? What are the line
items you spend from?
- How do you keep track of money that is being spent? Do you keep a spreadsheet or ledger?
- How do you keep track of what is ordered, what has come in,
what hasn’t come in, money in particular accounts, and end of year
purchases?
- Do you sometimes get additional midyear?
- What is the procedure for requesting additional money for special needs such as an automation system or encyclopedia set.
- Do you have any fundraising activities?
- Have you written grant proposals for outside funding?
- Have you been able to use other monies outside your budget accounts?
Print Materials
- How are books purchased? Is a jobber used? Which one(s)?
- How are purchase orders prepared-typed/computer? What information is required?
- How are lists of books generated? Is a database used in this process?
- Are books purchased directly from publishers?
- Does this process differ any from the jobber process? How?
- Are card catalog cards, bar codes, or MARC records purchased?
Periodicals
- How many print magazines are ordered? How are magazines
ordered? From a jobber? Which jobber? What happens when magazines do not
arrive?
Electronic Materials and Other Nonprint Materials
- What is the process for ordering nonprint materials? Are they ordered on approval? What companies are used?
Hardware and Equipment
- What’s the process for ordering hardware/equipment? What
vendors are used? Does the district participate in a county/regional
cooperative purchasing program? How is this done?
Supplies / Repairs
- What is the process for ordering library and audiovisual supplies? Do you order locally? Do you have any favorite suppliers?
- How are maintenance and repairs handled?
Read More About It
Accounts Available for Media Centers from
Alpine School District, Utah
Summary of budget accounts.
Budget and Inventory from the
Canadian Library Association
Computers for Schools
National non-profit dedicated to providing a low cost alternative for achieving technology in the classroom.
Cox, Marge (Jan. 2008).
10 Tips for Budgeting (Access requires login).
Library Media Connection; 26(4), 24-25.
Miller, Pat (Feb 2003).
Budget-Stretching Ideas.
School Library Media Activities Monthly; 19(6), 38, 46. Retrieved from Education Full Text database.
The ideas relate to acquiring free or low-cost books and software,
decorating the library media center with free posters and other
promotional materials, obtaining funding for author visits, applying for
professional training grants, and converting talent into funding.
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