[Publib] Budget cuts - hours vs. materials

Fri Aug 8 10:01:27 EDT 2008

This is a real "Hot Button" for me. We have wonderful volunteers who
perform meaningful tasks excellently. Our volunteers provide the
frosting on the cake. Replacing paid personnel with volunteers may say
to your funding officials, "Not only have you been overpaying librarians
all these years, but we can get what they do for free." 

Years ago there was a CETA program (Comprehensive Education & Training
Act--I think it was). Additional staff was offered to certain government
agencies. I'm not sure I remember who was eligible to receive CETA
employees. They were to provide supplemental, not fundamental, services.
Our library had six CETA staff. Of course, our funding authority paid no
attention to the fact they replaced hired staff. When the program ended,
our library went from 20 employees to 14. Because these CETA staff were
supplemental they were not replaced. [We had a two-story building on the
side of a steep hill, with two entrances, each on street level. Each
entrance/exit had to be staffed at all times, plus reference,
cataloging/processing, and we squeezed in administration. Since we were
open four nights a week and Saturday, you can see that an illness or a
vacation were stretching our staff to the limit.] My point is don't
provide for "free" what you cannot afford to lose when volunteers are on
vacation or have family visiting

In our area we are discovering that many of the Baby Boomers who are
beginning to retire do not have the same enthusiasm for volunteering as
did their predecessors. Also there are many more agencies drawing on the
retired population than a few years ago. You would need to be sure that
your area has sufficient volunteers. There may be regional preferences
of "great places" to volunteer.  

This e-mail contains the thoughts and opinions of Denise Johnson and
does not represent official Midland County Policy.

Denise Johnson, County Librarian
Midland County Public Library
301 W. Missouri Ave
Midland, TX 79701
Direct Phone:(432) 688-4333
Fax: (432) 688-4939
e-mail denise_johnson at co.midland.tx.us 
Main Library number (432) 688-4320

>>> "Tina Branco" <tbranco at hughes.net> 8/8/2008 8:17 AM >>>

In all the discussions so far, no where have I seen mention of engaging
volunteers to expand staff availability.  In this age of retiring
Boomers, who are well educated, and often heavy users of the library, it
seems to make sense to examine the workload, and have staff come up with
ways that volunteers can be incorporated into the library’s programs. 
Here in Maine, many of our libraries are run entirely by volunteers. 
The sense of community pride and ownership is clearly visible and come
budget time, provides an impetus to keep the dollars intact.  Many of us
have advanced degrees (some of us even have an MLS), computer knowledge,
and the time and ability to provide what we see as a vital resource in
these days of tightening money for everyone – patrons and communities. 

Since the original question did not indicate a proposed CUT in
staffing, the addition of volunteers to the program should not be viewed
as a threat to anyone’s job.  The State office of Volunteerism, and
other local volunteer organizations are available to provide help in
designing the work, recruiting, and providing training support to staff
for supervising and working with volunteers.  If you have a Friends
group, they might also want to help with this project.

I’m dating myself here, but as Mickie used to say in the cereal
commercial: “Try it---you’ll like it!”

Tina Branco
South Thomaston Library Volunteer (AKA the Tech Goddess)
tbranco at south-thomaston.lib.me.us

From:publib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Andrea Berstler
Sent: Friday, August 08, 2008 8:20 AM
To: publib at webjunction.org 
Subject: RE: [Publib] Budget cuts - hours vs. materials

I believe the question is – do you cut materials to expand hours? – at
least this ap
pears to be the question in the “official” version. 

 the answer is – why would you consider this?   Has there been any sort
of study? Do you have requests from the patrons of those branches for
additional hours? Could you make an hour “shift” and open late one
morning to stay open that night, etc? What options have and have not
been considered? Are there other things that could be trimmed to make
funding available (office supplies, cleaning, etc). 

When Pennsylvania slashed library funding 5 years ago, most if not all
libraries in the state faced this question. Funding cuts caused
libraries to face anywhere from 25% to 50% or more drop in state funding
(a major source of money for many PA libraries). We cut both, and then
some. We have recovered some of our funding; however the cut in
materials spending dramatically affected our circulation. From 2002 to
2003 we experienced an 11 % drop in circulation . . . but not a
corresponding drop in visits (-7%). I have to believe that much of that
circulation drop was due to a lack of materials (as well as the
disgruntled employees who got no raises for 2 years).  

Cutting materials to add hours? I would recommend your library consider
other options. While the extra hours are nice for patrons, if there are
less interesting things there to borrow, will you really need them? 

Andrea

Andrea Berstler - Director 
The Village Library of Morgantown
PO Box 797, 207 N Walnut St 
Morgantown, PA 
www.villagelibrary.org ( http://www.villagelibrary.org/ )
610-286-1022
Preserving the Past . . . Preparing for the Future . . . 
Board Member - Association for Rural and Small Libraries 

Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.    - Babe Ruth

From:publib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Tiar, Marc
Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2008 2:35 PM
To: publib at webjunction.org 
Subject: [Publib] Budget cuts - hours vs. materials

Hello out there,

I’m a new subscriber to the list, having just joined to post this
question (although I was a subscriber many years ago).  In these tough
economic times, we’re having to make some difficult choices.  We are
trying to find any data, anecdotal or otherwise, to support or refute a
decision one way or another.   We have been searching the literature but
not doing too well – it’s sort of a tough concept to put into search
terms, due both to such common words and the many synonyms of them that
appear in the journals. 

Put briefly, is it better to cut hours/days of operation or
acquisitions?

Or, the way it was phrased to us to look into:

Washoe County Library has been asked to consider cutting deeply into
its Library Materials budget in order to fill personnel vacancies, which
might allow some library branches to expand public hours. If you cut
deeply into your materials budget, did your circulation and/or visitor
statistics decrease?  By maintaining or increasing public hours, despite
cutting your materials budget, did your circulation and/or visitor
statistics increase?

Many thanks for any information you can share.

Marc Tiar
Washoe County Library
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.webjunction.org/wjlists/publib/attachments/20080808/2e7a382e/attachment.htm