I wanted a place to track some ideas about where our local library could fit in the community in the next five to ten years. Earlier writeups described scenarios for future technology support and usage, as well as where the library has a physical presense in the community. I now want to move away from those (predominately) “sinks” of funding to focus on sources of funding for our local library. In this case, I will focus on a few areas that I feel are worth exploring, as they key on some strengths of our library, as well as trying to overcome some weaknesses. Your mileage may vary, as they say, since your library’s strengths and weaknesses will be different. See if there are any ideas here that are new to you, and let me know.
Our library is currently funded about 98% by tax dollars. The remaining funding consists of donations from the library Friends organization, non-governmental grants, sale or auction of assets (including media), “gifts” from developers of property, investment returns, and gifts from patrons. Another source of non-tax funds is fees and fines, although in our library’s case this will be shrinking based on recent policy changes. I have outlined some areas that could be evaluated by a library director to consider for expanding non-tax funding. I would suggest in a library our size, about $4mm annual budget, should have a director or designate spend at least 25% of their time on evaluating and pursuing additional revenues in this way -- I believe the “low-hanging” projects in this list could generate a substantial return on this time investment -- at least in our case. Benefits achieved could be used for mitigating tax increases and to building the value of the library by investing in physical plant and services.
1. Tax income
a. Review policies and procedures to annex and de-annex property not covered by library service
b. Review policies and procedures to capture non-resident fees
c. Evaluate opportunities to merge with neighboring library districts. If neighboring libraries aren’t district libraries, investigate whether the municipal library neighbors would consider becoming a district if we see any joint benefit. Consider property changes if there is sense to library and taxpayers.
d. Evaluate appropriation policy - budget to cover costs or target specific amounts (zero based or growth based budgeting)
2. Personal Giving
a. Build a strong, visible and active non-profit Foundation. Determine proper support of foundations dedicated to the library
b. Nurture strong, visible, and active Friends organization. Create agreements of how funding requests occur and how programs are funded (our Friends funds programs at the library and at the local Park District).
c. Create an approach to handling legacy requests, including marketing and recognition programs, naming options.
d. Consider approaches to handling other requests for gifts, including ways to provide donor recognition.
e.
3. Corporate Giving
a. Determine best approach to target local businesses, including whether to target general requests or specific project funding requests.
b. Build relationships with large and small local businesses to help determine what funding amount and projects would be considered.
c. Consider approaches to marketing to possible corporate donors and methods of donor recognition.
d. Evaluate future opportunities for developer donations in district.
4. Sourcing
a. Evaluate strengths of library that can become the base for sourcing to other entities. For instance, provide outsourced librarians to local school districts, local colleges, and local corporations.
5. Grants
a. Determine policy on competing for grants. Invest more time and effort in grants tied to strategic projects. Evaluate needs for dedicated grants writer.
6. Asset sales
a. Continue providing donated and culled media assets to Friends and Better World Books for resale. Optimize return and control of funds by considering other auction approaches for media assets, including direct eBay/Amazon sales of highly valued media.
b. Look for other sources of assets that might be valued more by others than by the library. For instance, donated or purchased art items may no longer fit the library and could be auctioned.
c. Consider options for library owned real property. Is there value in selling or trading any property?
7. Investment returns
a. Optimize short term investment returns of working capital.
b. Optimize longer term accounts, such as Special Reserves for future projects.
c. Consider investments that throw off intermediate returns as well as planning for future expenditures. For instance, would purchasing property for future expansion allow us to make short-term income, such as parking fees or rents?
8. Fines and usage fees
a. Optimize fine and fee schedules to limit community pain while maintaining or growing specific usage fees -- for instance should excessive interlibrary loan requests include a postage or administration fee? A goal would be to ensure requests well beyond the normal/common are paid for at least in part by the requestor.
9. Media selection
a. Consider “subscription” or sponsorship service to sell some choice in media acquisition to subscriber. For instance, a Dr. Who fan could donate $25 per year to the library with the understanding that the library will purchase more Dr. Who videos than in the past. This could also target specific media, such as XBox games, or a business need such as specific types of managerial books.
10. Asset creation and sale/licensing
a. Consider information assets that can be created or packaged by the library that could be offered to the public.
i. Local history information, packaged in DVDs for sale.
ii. Local genealogy information, including public records such as detailed historic census info, as well as library generated information such as cemetery records, house histories, and historic pictures packaged as data DVDs.
iii. Lisle information packages for Chamber of Commerce and realtor usage.
b. Consider information assets that can be created that could be offered to other libraries.
i. Software applications for new uses of catalog.
ii. Process documentation that can be packaged and sold to other libraries, such as catalog evaluation criteria, shared laptop cleaning processes, etc.
iii. Migration of needed apps to new platforms, such as iPad, Android, iPhone, Blackberry, Windows 7, etc.
iv. Training material for new technology uses.
v. Consulting, such as sharing or leading processes to generate a library strategic plan.
No comments:
Post a Comment