This is going to be really rambling, and I apologize, but there’s so much I’d like to find out.
My county has a library system and my tiny town has a branch of that library.
It’s open five days a week and there are two librarians who split duties. I’ve been thinking about trying to do something to benefit the library, but I’m still in the “thinking about it” stage.
But this thinking about it has made me start thinking about other aspects of libraries that I’ve always wondered about. I realize all libraries aren’t necessarily the same, so I’ll take any answers with a grain of salt. (To give perspective, it looks like my county’s library system was estimated to get 1.2 million dollars in tax monies for 2004.)
How do libraries decide what to buy?
If a library is part of a consortium, do members of the consortium deliberately split purchases? In other words, will they get together and decide amongst libraries which will buy Book X, or does each library simply buy what they want and if that means 100 copies in the consortium so be it?
My library branch is very small. How much money is a reasonable guess for what it takes to run such a branch? Where does most of the money go?
I can go online and order a book or DVD from any member in the SEO library consortium for free. How much is that likely costing my tiny little branch?
How much do librarians in a small public system make-ish?
I can only answer a few parts of your question. Hopefully some small-town librarians will jump in with more.
As to how you can help, most towns have a “friends of the library” group that raises money, donates books, and donates time to library operations. If your town has one, join it. If not, check into starting one.
As to how they decide what books to buy, that’s largely up to the librarian. Obviously, if somebody donates a good book, they’re going to accept it. For the most part, the purchasing decisions are based on what their readers want. If tons of people check out Cecil Adams “Straight Dope” books, then when a new one comes out, you can pretty well guarantee the library will buy one or more copies. If the library has a dozen books on senior citizens with triskaidekaphobia, and it’s been four years since anyone checked one out, they’re not likely to be buying any more books on senior citizens with triskaidekaphobia.
The American Library Association has publications that help librarians find new books, and most librarians read magazines like Publisher’s Weekly and Advance so they know what’s coming out.
Small town librarian checking in here. My library’s budget is about $300,000 per year, and we serve 15,400 patrons in our town. One main library, no branches.
How do libraries decide what to buy?
Depends a little on the library, but most balance the following:
Patron requests
Starred reviews in Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, or similar
Standing orders with publishers (this works as in, “Send me the top 5 bestsellers every month” type of thing)
Active back-collecting/collection development by a librarian for a particular subject area. This happens when a librarian notices a gap in the library’s collection, say in forensics, and recommends some forensics books be purchased.
2. If a library is part of a consortium, do members of the consortium deliberately split purchases? In other words, will they get together and decide amongst libraries which will buy Book X, or does each library simply buy what they want and if that means 100 copies in the consortium so be it?
Ideally, members of a consortia would split purchasing. Few consortia are organized enough to really make this happen, however. It sometimes happens with book club books or really big reference sets – though most often, that consists of Library X buying a new set every year and giving its old set to Library Y as a hand-me-down. Sometimes Library Y will buy a different set (often in a different subject area) and give ITS year old set to Library X. Trade-offs, essentially. Few purchases, especially of individual bestsellers or whatever, are made with the consortium in mind.
My library branch is very small. How much money is a reasonable guess for what it takes to run such a branch? Where does most of the money go?
About 70-75% of most library budgets go to salary, which also includes retirement, paying into social security, FICA, etc. The next big chunk is traditionally the materials budget (this varies), then building upkeep (utilities, etc.), supplies, insurance, etc.
I’d have a hard time guessing what your branch’s budget is. I don’t know for sure about your state, but here in Illinois, we’re constrained to publish our budget in the newspaper once per year, usually at the start of the new fiscal year (July). As a patron at our library (and any other in Illinois, I believe), you can also ask for a copy of our budget at any time. It’s public record, since public libraries are just that.
I can go online and order a book or DVD from any member in the SEO library consortium for free. How much is that likely costing my tiny little branch?
Again, that can vary quite a bit. I asked our interlibrary loan librarian one time how much she thought it cost for each ILL from the consortium. She estimated $2.50, but another librarian immediately corrected her, since that doesn’t include her salary. It’s one of those “fuzzy figures” that depends on how much it costs your consortium to do intra-consortial deliveries, how much your ILL librarian makes, etc. I’d guess around $4-5 myself for a consortial loan myself, but that might be low.
How much do librarians in a small public system make-ish?
Librarians in a small public system make very little money as a rule. Our library is run with a full-time staff of 3 and a part-time staff of about 23. The three full-timers make as follows:
Director: 25 years experience, $48,000/yr
Assistant director: 20 years experience, about $40,000 a year
Children’s librarian: 4 years experience, around $21,000 a year
Part-time librarians, such as myself, have no benefits of any kind, nor any paid time off. I started at about $7.50 per hour when I had only a Master’s Degree in English. Right now, I have a master’s in Library & Info Science, plus that English Master’s, and I currently make $9.70 per hour, but I do expect a raise to $10.27 an hour in a couple of weeks.
We are considered underpaid for our area, however. At another public library, I could be making anywhere from $12-16 an hour depending. The smaller the library, the more likely it will be run with low salaries, IME.
Just FYI, the librarian profession has one of the most disproportionate education requirements vs. starting salary ratios you can find. Lots of education required (typically a master’s), but the starting salary for a public librarian is often around $30-$35,000 (and can be much lower; see above). Not much when you’re trying to repay student loans or support your family.
Well, I’m in a small academic library in NE Ohio, but the process is similar no matter what kind of library you’re in.
First, I had to realize what parts of the collection were lacking - whether due to age, changes in the curriculum or other reasons. Then I had to start looking for the basics in that area (I do have a subject specialty, which makes it a little easier. I’m not trying to collect for any random subject that I may or may not know anything about.) When I find something that looks like a good resource, I check our catalog to make sure we don’t already own it, check the statewide catalog to see how many other libraries have it and whether they loan it out. After that, if I didn’t find the book through a source like Publisher’s Weekly, I go review hunting. I have to justify purchases - I can’t just go spending money willy-nilly. That lets my supervisor know that it is considered useful. It also helps me - just yesterday I removed something from the list after reading a review and realizing that it just didn’t fit what I thought it fit.
I also take recommendations from the faculty and go through a similar process with them.
2. If a library is part of a consortium, do members of the consortium deliberately split purchases? In other words, will they get together and decide amongst libraries which will buy Book X, or does each library simply buy what they want and if that means 100 copies in the consortium so be it?
It depends. Part of my selection process does include checking the statewide catalog, because if it’s something that will be useful to a small percentage of students in the program and 18 libraries already have copies that can be loaned out to us…I probably won’t buy it, because we have access to it. If libraries don’t loan it out (for example, if they keep it in their reference collection), I’m much more likely to purchase it than assume that students can get their hands on it somehow. The big exception is for online databases - these costs are mostly shared among the libraries statewide. That means that we have a lot more access than we would otherwise, because those databases are wicked expensive. Disclaimer: I’m not completely sure how the statewide consortium operates for academic libraries in Ohio. I’m still fairly new to the state and the system, so I’m still learning.
3. My library branch is very small. How much money is a reasonable guess for what it takes to run such a branch? Where does most of the money go?
I don’t know how much is reasonable for a small public library. As for where the money goes: salaries, operating expenses (electricity and the like), collection development & maintenance, subscriptions for magazines and newspapers (falls into collection development, but should be a seperate line item in the budget, IMO), programming for children and adults, staff training… 4. I can go online and order a book or DVD from any member in the SEO library consortium for free. How much is that likely costing my tiny little branch?
This really varies. I’d go with the answer from furthur’s post. 5. How much do librarians in a small public system make-ish?
Not that much, actually. In all likelihood (and depending somewhat on the cost of living in your area), it’s probably around $30,000/year. This also depends on the librarian’s experience level and responsibility. I’m a fairly new librarian, so my judgement is based on my recent job search, where I was looking at entry level positions.