Brother, can you spare another $2.6 billion?

Citation

Boese, K.C. (2006), "Brother, can you spare another $2.6 billion?", The Bottom Line, Vol. 19 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/bl.2006.17019aaa.001

Brother, can you spare another $2.6 billion?

According to Reuters (2005), Alan Greenspan is concerned about inflation, and when he is leery, there is probably good reason to take heed. While he claims the US economy has good momentum, and that rebuilding activities after the hurricanes will bolster short-term gross domestic product, the outlook with regard to inflation is more uncertain.

Simply put, should inflation become a large problem in our economy, we will have weaker purchasing power with our money. Even if we are able to increase our budgets, we may be receiving fewer goods and services for our buck in the future. This is illustrated in Kavulya’s article on the state of university libraries in Kenya.

As Kavulya shows, years of runaway inflation, leading to a weak Kenya shilling and the rising cost of new library materials, has led to many public university libraries being supported primarily with only enough money for staff salaries. This situation is prevalent through much of Africa, and has left supporters of libraries scrambling to find new and creative ways to identify and secure funding. But even being successful in obtaining funds can be tricky.

As Tiemo relays from Nigeria, the Obasanjo Presidential Library project has been fraught with bad press, scathing editorials, and a lack of public support. This is not because anyone thinks the library is a bad idea or unnecessary, but rather because of the ways the funds are being raised, and the lack of funding for other worthy projects, “presumably” at the expense of the library project. But for some of the world’s poorest countries, there may be hope around the corner.

According to Paul Wolfowitz at the World Bank (2005), an historic level of support endorsed the G8 proposal to cancel 100 percent of the debts of some of the world’s poorest countries. By wiping the balance sheets clean, these countries will no longer have to choose between spending to benefit their people and repaying impossible debts. This means that support for African libraries will increase – if it is important enough to the societies they serve.

Having adequate funding is a subjective view, as Poll illustrates from experience gained at the Universität Münster. While well funded when compared to some libraries, the one at Universität Münster wisely shows that no mater what funding level you are at, there is never room to spend money poorly. Poll suggests a method to determine the costs of activities and services performed in libraries, and advises that – when possible – those costs be compared to those paid by other libraries in order to determine if the library is paying to much. By discovering the cost of services, it is easier to decide what services the library should continue to provide, how much it should spend to provide the services, and if it is more cost effective to have some services provided through someone else.

An important idea to keep in mind, however, is that sometimes the value of a service cannot be measured in dollars and cents, or may even seem like the value gained in the short-term is not worth the expense. While we continually strive to make every part of our budget have as much purchasing power as possible, it must always be weighed against the mission of the library and the needs of our clientele. If we become efficient financial organizations, but fail to provide the services expected of us, we cannot consider ourselves successful.

And to this end, NYPL has undertaken an initiative to more effectively serve New York City’s children and teen population. Through outreach efforts, they have had significant growth in this user group. Programs, such as NYPL’s, are excellent ways to position a library for future survival. First, by increasing a user population, the money spent to support collections serving this group is better spent. Second, by reaching out to children and teens, it also brings awareness of the library to their families. It also garners good will with communities by providing constructive services and activities for them to participate in. Lastly, by serving children and teens today, you ingrain the library as a sense of place and service to them. As these children grow up, there will likely be more support – including financial support – from them than there would be had they not gone to the library when young.

There are many ways to measure financial success, and to position an organization for better funding today and in the future. While some of the economics of business are out of our control, other factors are not. All we can do is attempt to be aware of our own efficiencies, what our mission is, who we serve, and what the economic conditions are under which we operate. By staying on top of that as best as we can, we will have most of the information we need to make decisions on where we should be tomorrow, and what road we might take to get there.

Kent C. BoeseArts Cataloger, Cataloging Services Department, Smithsonian Institution Libraries, Washington, DC, USA