Best Practices

Survival Kit for Tough Times

Valerie Ryder, Director of Information Strategy, Wolper Subscription Services

No matter what state the economy is in, public libraries always face tough times in the budget arena. In the best of times, public libraries are the last to receive increased funds. And in the worst of times, their budgets are drastically slashed. Public library directors, managers and staff fine-tune their skills in delivering the best service possible with minimal expenditures.

Some additional techniques from A to Z are:

• Additional Income – While use of a public library is “free” to the members of the community it serves, there may be supplemental services for which fees can be assessed or increased, depending upon the guidelines or regulations imposed by your state and local governments or your library board. Income generation will only augment a public library’s main budget source and cannot be relied on to mitigate major funding gaps.
• Meeting Rooms – Does the room rental fee cover just incremental costs such as heating/cooling and lighting? Does the fee include a cost margin that provides an income stream while still being less expensive than commercial meeting venues?
• Conveniences – Does your library charge customers for replacement ear buds or batteries for their audio book and e-book devices that they’ve forgotten or lost? What about providing space for a DVD or videotape rental concession in exchange for the same percentage on transactions that commercial locations receive? How about selling reusable book bags as an income source as well as making an environmental statement and providing another publicity channel?
• Exploring Options – Talk with your key service providers to find out what else they may be able to do for you, at minimal or no cost, to augment or supplant staff time. You may find that a service provider can deliver the same quality of service and you can redirect scarce staff resources to do more critical and highly skilled activities.
• What services does your subscription agent provide in the information resource management cycle that would be useful to you and save you money?
• Can they handle more of your subscriptions that you have been ordering directly from the publisher?
• Can they handle claiming of missing issues and do all of the follow-ups for you?
• Do they have a journal check-in system?
• Can journal issues be delivered to your subscription agent for their staff to check-in, process and ship to your library in shelf-ready condition?
• What systems does your vendor have available that will help streamline your workflow?
• Are you getting the best pricing from your vendor?
• Does your integrated library system (ILS) have other modules that would streamline operations and free up staff time if you implemented those capabilities?
• Does your ILS software have interfaces with electronic resources or your library webpage that would simplify internal processes and improve accessibility for your library customers?
• Going “Green” – Utility costs are often one of the largest segments of a budget, after salaries and materials. A careful analysis of energy costs can result in savings as well as demonstrating the library’s commitment to a sustainable future.
• Are there technology solutions, such as programmable thermostats and CFC lights, which will make your library more energy efficient? Are public access computers and printers set to go into sleep mode to conserve electricity?
• Would adjusting library hours based on an examination of attendance, check-out volumes and reference desk inquiries save energy costs as well as reducing salary expenditures for part-time or security staff?
• Can the library be closed for more consecutive days around major holidays, when usage typically is lower?
• Zero-based budgeting – You’ve already pruned and trimmed your budget to eliminate what you think are non-essentials but have you really stepped back, taken a blank sheet of paper (or a blank computer spreadsheet) and planned out what you would need if starting over.
• We always have assumptions about what services we think we “have” to provide but what really are our core services and how much do they cost to provide?
• What is the incremental cost when we add each layer of additional services?
• What is the benefit provided for those additional services compared with the cost to provide them?
• It can be an enlightening discussion with key stakeholders (the library board members, key customer groups, community leaders and staff) to present a zero-based budget and justify each layer of additional services.
• Often we find out what they really value and how much they are willing to spend for those services.
• Their eyes are opened to how much it really costs to run a top quality library when the illusion of “information is free” is dispelled with hard facts.

If you don’t ask the questions, you’ll never know whether you are missing opportunities.

Wolper Subscription Services is a leading provider of personalized, customized subscription management services for public, government, corporate and academic libraries. Their high tech, high touch™ approach combines extraordinary customer care with a robust online system (WOLPERweb®) that enables 24/7/365 access to more than 300,000 titles and online check-in with automatic claiming. Wolper has been in business for 30+ years and is the only certified 100% woman-owned business in the industry. For further information, please contact Wolper at 610-559-9550 or www.wolper.com

Valerie Ryder is Director of Information Strategy for Wolper Subscription Services. She has over 30 years of experience in managing business and research libraries in the corporate sector, has spearheaded the migration from print to electronic information resources at a Fortune 300 company and has been a solo librarian. She has an MLS degree from the University of Pittsburgh, a Master’s degree in International Business Management from Point Park University and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Rochester.