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Thank you for responding to my question about what to consider when preparing an annual budget for the library. I am sorry that it has taken away to compile the answer. If I felt a response was being duplicated I did not include it. 1. Some of the supplies that you would use in a middle school library would be the following: Glue Scotch Tape Paper Clips Pencils Pens Construction Paper (for Bulletin Boards and the Ellison Machine if you have one) Book Glue and other mending supplies Book Covers Book Covers for paperback books Tape for putting on book covers Staples 3-hole paper punch Envelopes (different sizes) Rubber bands Rolodex cards (I use my Rolodex for lots of things, not just addresses and phone numbers. A word that I have to spell a lot and can never remember how to spell. Passwords for sites that I use on the internet. Hours of the public library. Where to find the License Bureau in the phone book. I also have a Rolodex that I use for what I have in my filing cabinet, subject headings and see also cards.) You will need to divide the budget into the following areas: Books Periodicals Professional meetings/Travel Supplies (Office and Library) Equipment Maintenance and Repair At the present time I'm in a vocational high school with around 600 students on two campuses and several off-campus sites. When I first took this job (19 years ago) I asked for a budget and they wouldn't give me one. I asked a second time and they wouldn't give me one. I said something about it to my Dad (a retired county superintendent) and he said it's better to not have a budget, you'll get more money that way. One school I worked in (junior high school) had us fill out a form for what we thought we might need the following year. We learned to put down double what we thought we would need and when we got the budget it was always half of what we requested. I hope this helps. I remember having to do a budget for one of my classes back in the mid 80's and my professor gave us $500 to upgrade a reference section of a school, just one section of the reference area. At that time $500 was my entire budget for books in the school I was working at the time (private high school). 2. Most librarians spend it until it's gone. What we do when we get our budget from the office, is assess our needs for the year, renew our magazines, etc. This year so far we have spent $1400 on professional videos to use in the classroom $1000 on new books and plan to spend $4000 more Several thousand on database renewals Several thousand on reference books $3000 on new computers and flat screens What I would do is assess every area of the library...circulation, book cards, pockets, software, circ program things like barcodes and security (our new security gate was $10,000 this year), printer paper, cartridges, etc., newspapers, magazines...the list is endless. Don't plan it around implementing a reading program. Those programs like AR drain your budget quickly due to purchasing tests for every book and the software..it's VERY expensive..you get 50 tests for around $100 to $200 which doesn't sound like a lot, but it's only 50 books. An Oklahoma standard (which LM_Net users tell me is "outdated") is $9 per child. I don't know why they think this is outdated...it's the latest we've heard. In my last school, that was my budget, and that made it about $2000-$2500 a year..not much to work with. Does that help?? Charlotte Nance 3. For your budget decide on what areas you need to budget and what percentage of your total should go into each area. Since a school library needs to focus on books that work with the curriculum and with books that entice the reading interest of all your grade levels and reading interests, the cost of books automatically requires the greatest percent of your budget. What are your new equipment needs for your library (or school), what general supplies do you need (scissors, pencils, markers, paper, stapler, scotch and masking tapes, book tape, book, covers, pockets, barcode sheets, etc., what reference books do you need (encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesaurus, fact books, et.), and what audio-visual needs (DVD's, audio books, etc.) do you have? Obviously, you can't buy every need in one budget, so you plan on a portion of need for each year and strive to fulfill as much as possible in equipment and reference in five years. What monies you don't have for priorities, beg for additional funding from your principal or PTO and definitely apply for grants. 4. An average book is 20 - the rule of thumb says number of students x 20 = average budget. So it really isn't large! Is it for databases and library supplies as well? With 450 students I generally spend about 500 - 1000 for supplies. I spend about 3000 on databases and magazine subscriptions. Then I spend heavily in the area I weed that year (about 1/3 the collection each year) - That seems to work for me. 5. I work in a middle school in CT. I also oversee the elementary school. Together, we have about the same number of students as you have in your middle school. I will give you a ballpark figure of what the budget is for both schools, and it should come close to your $14,000 that you have to spend. In my budget, I must include money for the following- Repairs and maintenance ($1200)- This includes costs to repair a broken laminator, VCR, TV. These days, except for the laminator, it is almost not worth trying to repair a TV or VCR. This line item also includes the yearly cost we must pay for tech support for our online catalog system, Athena. Supplies ($800)- This includes money for supplies for book repair, which includes glue, book tape, repair tape. Money for barcode covers and barcodes, unless you order all books with processing. I also buy bookmarks, scotch tape, pencils, paper, etc. in this line item. Computer software ($1200)- I use this line item to pay for online databases or encyclopedias. Books and magazines($9000)- This includes of course fiction, non-fiction, professional books, and magazines for the kids and teachers. Audio visual supplies($2200)- This is for videos the teacher may request, bulbs for overhead projectors, batteries, VHS tapes, tape for any digital video camera and laminating material. Laminating material is $25-$35 for a 500' roll. Very expensive. Equipment ($1000)- This is usually VCR and DVD players, tape recorders. I would suggest getting figures from the School library Journal on the average price of a book ( http://www.schoollibraryjournal com/article/CA507329.html). If we are playing pretend, you may want to talk about a certain part of your collection that is badly outdated and needs improvement. For instance, we had a series of state books that were really old. I had to try and replace a good portion of them and this alone ran into about $1000. We also have a new science curriculum, so I had to really revamp our science books. Also, try and find out if in your state there is any recommended number of books per student you should have in your library. Check your state department of education website. In CT, the ideal number is 25 volumes per student so with 475 kids in my school, my library should have 11875. Good luck, Eileen Dunnack 6. We are about a 1/3 your size and spend in supplies about 600 dollars. We cold laminate all paperbacks; provide teachers with new rolls for their overheads and the bulbs for overheads. The rest is sundry supplies. Look at the age of your collection; do you need to do some serious weeding before you can start purchasing? As to the purchases; get the curriculum map and then map and match the collection. Does the collection support the curriculum? Which areas are weak and need beefing up. Fiction. Award books not only for your state but for others near you, best fiction of the year kinds of lists that you can access from various vendors, ALA and book review journals. On-line subscriptions. What do you need? United Streaming type access, journal/magazine databases, and then what about an on-line encyclopedia, poetry index, biographies and whatever your curriculum map suggests. Video collection (VHS and DVD) what about audio things now for audio books? Computers? Are they funded another way, or does the library budget have to support its technology? What do you need new? Hardware and software. Do you have any "cheap" laptops for students without computers at home to check out? Library system support agreement! Don't forget to pay that! What about library furniture, when will the building budget cover that? Do you need new chairs, tables or anything now that can't wait? Posters and display things. Jean R. Jean Gustafson 7. My budget is broken down into: Books/Periodicals; Supplies; Equipment; Repair & Maintenance; Licenses: Software. Each has it's own allotted amount from the total budget. Books/Periodicals is pretty self-explanatory. Supplies includes processing materials like book covers, glue, spine and barcode labels, markers, construction paper, etc. I also buy laminating film from the supply budget and ink cartridges for the printers in the library. I have about 800 students. I get $4000 for books, $3500 for supplies, $3000 for equipment, $500 for license and aobut $4000 for software. I get $275 for registration (conferences, workshops, etc.) Hope this helps. Julie Stephens, -------------------------------------------------------------------- Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law. You can prevent most e-mail filters from deleting LM_NET postings by adding LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU to your e-mail address book. 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