Hello all!
I hadn't planned on posting a hit but had some requests. For clarification, the
books in question were for the Birthday Book Club. I have asked for volunteers and
gotten little response. We are a small Catholic School with NO budget for books so
I had planned to purchase at Barnes and Noble and process myself on my own time. I
think I'll reconsider and shop for some preprocessed books even though my money
won't go as far. BTW, My principal earned high ratings for his support and sage
advice re: the not very nice lady.
Susan Waring
SLMS
OLS-Seton Middle
Endicott, NY
1) We charge a minimum of $6.00 for a paperback book and $11.00 for a hardback.
This is only for old books that might not have cost that much when purchased. Of
course, now most books cost much more than the minimum. I add $1.00 for processing
and $1.00 for handling charges for lost or stolen books to any books I add to our
collection.
2) You could look up what the various vendors, Baker & Taylor, etc, charge for
processing and add about 5.00 for ordering and final processing cost.
3) Easiest is to figure it by how long it takes. Then divide your salary to get a
cost for you to process and a cost if you have a Para-Pro to do it. So, if your
salary comes out to $21.00 dollars an hour and it takes you 20 minutes to process,
then the cost to put the book on the shelf is $7.00. If your Para-Pro does it,
they are probably in the 8 to 10 dollar salary
range, so let's take 9.00 (easy to divide by 3) it would cost $3.00 dollars to
process. Books that come in shelf ready really aren't, you pay 1.25 for processing
(go to the companies that provide it free!) then you spend another 10 to 15 minutes
getting it ready for the shelf. Your library stamp, making sure the MARC is
correct and has the specifics for your
library and your users. Any reading program markings or something on it and you
are back up for another 3 to 5.33 for you to process each item.
4) I estimate $2. Cost of Barcode, cost of handling it to process, cost of
covering it with contact paper if paperback. This does NOT take into count my time
and labor of ordering a replacement, and entering the replacement in the card
catalog. Or of sending out overdue notices. Of having to deposit a check
(secretary's salary).
AND I refuse to take in a replacement book that they purchased. Because of the
above. I also do not always replace the book with the same title. It may have been
one that was on the back burner for weeding.
5) I always said it was $20 to process a book- my salary in the school system was
close to $20 per hour-
Things that need to be done to process a book:
1. Collect reviews to substantiate purchase
2. Gather info for odering- publisher, ISBN, etc
3. Create PO
4. Submit PO
5. Check PO when materials arrive
6. Enter CIP, MARC records into automation system
7. Print bar code and spine labels (my software does both at once)
8. Apply bar code
9. Apply spine label
10. Stamp book with ownership stamp
11. Shelve book
Now if you have a clerk doing steps 7-11, you could factor their hourly salary.
40 minutes for steps 1-6, twenty minutes for steps 7-11.
5) I don't hve the cost, but it used to be a half an hour of time per book. Then
adding cost of pocket, card, cataloging, labeling, covering, often add about $3. to
6. per book.
Please let us know if anyone has some "official" or published or data
documented Answers. I think we would all be interested in that information.
Thanks.
7) The price would vary depending upon the book and your standard practices, but
the processing supplies, such as book jacket, spine label, other labels, bar code,
etc., would probably only run from .50 to $1. However, the real expense is in
staff time for cataloging and processing each item. I do not have any clerical
staff, and my hourly rate is over $25/hour, so the processing of an item would cost
me at least 10-15 minutes in time, which would add $4 to $6 to the processing cost
of each book. If you have clerical staff who can do some or all of the processing,
I would still expect you could estimate a minimum of $5 to put it on the shelf. If
you are having to try to purchase a book test for a reading program, such as
Accelerated Reader or Reading Counts, that adds to the cost, too. Individual tests
in RC cost $2.75, not to mention the time spent in placing the order for the book
and marking it with whatever system you might have. Depending on the books, they
might also be difficult to catalogue, which would require additional time. Donated
books are NOT a bargain. I buy everything that I can shelf-ready, as I cannot
spare time to process and catalogue books.
8) I know where you're coming from. I've been "chewed out" by a few parents
myself. Our school has what they call "The gift of Literacy" where families give
money or books & the Parent Council does the buying. I have no hand in it. A gift
card is attached to each book with the inscription "donated by the???? family 2004"
sometimes added with teacher's name.
The last two years they have given the G.O.L. books to classrooms. (I can't keep up
with cataloguing my new books). Maybe the Parent council from your school could do
this themselves then you won't have to deal with irate parents. You could give them
a "suggested gr. level list" of books you would like in the library.
Hope your principal backs you up. Keep us informed will you?? I'd like to know how
you made out.
9) We charge $2 for reprocessing a lost book (cost of book +$2). No documentation,
but the approx $1 that jobbers charge for providing cataloging, spine label,
barcode, and dust jacket covers seems to be a
good start. Add that we probably have to process the order for the book, perhaps go
pick up copy at local store, cover a paperback by hand, etc.
10) For donations, also factor in that: Need to look up reviews and go through
selection policy, some time will be spent looking for cataloging, downloading and
adding and adding copy info. And quite possibly adding local cataloging (or even
from scratch). AND physical processing...
11) We don't charge a processing fee - but after several "new" books became
difficult to get back...I told students that I was going to start charging
one & the fee would take into account the time I spent selecting, ordering
and processing.
Here's a way to calculate it - Take your hourly wage & divide by minutes per hour.
You've now got a rate
per minute. Multiply the rate by how long it takes to process (I'd go with an
average) - then add the cost of incidentals such as the spine label, book
jacket...Don't forget to add shipping fees.
It's a bit of a pain to figure out the individual cost for items you
purchase in bulk but once done - you could make a chart.
12) The cost of an unprocessed book being prepared for the shelf is very high in
time. I have a stack of 30 or more that need original processing. I just can't
get to it. They sit. Another factor is the non-library bindings--I put time and
effort into a material that will fall apart fast if it's a trade book.
13) If this is any help, I did a 'survey' a few years ago and estimated it takes me
approximately 30 minutes to do all the processing involved in getting a book on the
shelves, that's excluding reading it if it's fiction [which I do], or if the
classification is complicated if it's non-fiction. So if you can work out your
hourly rate you could do some arithmetic. Hope that helps.
In my experience it's often those who are in volunteer positions of authority who
think that authority extends beyond their areas of concern - and believe me I have
war wounds to prove that!!
14) Most of the libraries in this region use a flat rate of $20-$25 for a
processing fee for instances where a book is lost and a replacment is purchased,
taking into account time to handle, physically process, catalog, data entry,
statistical info, etc. We tell the patrons that the processing costs are the same
for a book they purchase and bring in (like a gift) or books we order that do not
come pre-processed from the book jobber. It's hard for them to understand.
On other fronts, for documentation, try
http://www.georgesuttle.com/publications/suttle1993.shtml
Amazon lists this OOP title
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0007DXH32/ref=nosim/thehotelresource/104-1076132-4242348?dev-t=D2Y5TUCCVJ7DGE
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