Daily Thoughts 12/29/2012
I have been reading more about Managing Budgets in Management Basics for Information Professionals. I am learning about how the different types of budgeting work. Most of what I have seen are line item budgets. Things are very tight right now. We cannot print out flyers, we charge for computer printouts, we have stopped giving out pens and pencils and only give out golf pencils. We only give out scrap paper at the reference desk. We focus on our electronic calendar to reduce paper costs. We have to check in the business office to get pens and basic supplies. There is a public fax machine; it takes credit card payments. We try and get programs that will not cost us money. The public computers at cybercorner have a print management system with a coin box. There is a collection agency attached to our fines. We do our own in house processing for materials. Our budget is so tight now, that the library does not have enough money to be open on weekends except for once a month.
While I was sitting at the city council meeting, I had a brief discussion with one of our former employee. The conversation was focused on "What is an essential service?", "Are libraries an essential service like firemen, police, and teachers?" There are numbers of arguments for why libraries are essential. http://www.librariesareessential.com/why-are-libraries-essential/
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