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Buying Smarter—How to Make the Library Dollar Go Farther. Your School Needs a Frugal Librarian

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As budgets tighten and the use of library resources increases, your ingenuity, skill, and planning can ensure that your students and staff have the best you can select, buy, borrow or solicit. Strategizing for lean times includes a vigorous, deliberate promotion and marketing campaign. Administrators, teachers, parents, and the community will support a program they know about; you will develop a core of advocates as your program is perceived as vibrant and crucial.

At one of the earliest library conferences I attended, school librarian Joanne Stickler of Canton, New York, described her curriculum-based budgeting technique. Every requisition was submitted with a tie to a course (a new one or a data-supported lack of resources for an existing one) or a curriculum initiative. Our budgets support the entire curriculum; our resources are essential to learning. Every time a requisition is processed, it’s obvious to administrators why it’s crucial for the school, building support for your program.

WORKING WITH VENDORS


Speaking of conferences, connecting with the vendors’ representatives face-to-face in the exhibits reaps discounts, advice, tips on grant sources, the best swag—all available to you. If you walk in with a targeted list of needs, you will get to compare prices and specs, often concluding a great deal with a conference discount. On Facebook, John Sandstrom, El Paso Public Library, advised, “Never be afraid to ask questions of vendors. Ask if they are giving you the best discount, the most service, the greatest help available. The worst that can happen is they say no.”

Taking sales reps’ phone calls with e-mail follow-ups, signing up for companies’ e-mail alerts, and “friending” companies on Facebook are all worthwhile. Debra L. Maier, Ontario Primary School, Ontario Center, New York, is always ready for the Bound to Stay Bound $6.00 sale at the beginning of October. Other vendors might offer deals such as, “Buy 4 books and get one free” or “Spend $350 and get $150 worth of free material.”

CAREFUL SELECTION


When funds are limited, it’s time to sharpen your selection process, choosing those materials that are most effective at enticing students to read and provide high quality information. Amy Ipp, Millburn Middle School, New Jersey, checks circulation records for series books. If circulation is low, she does not purchase sequels beyond the second title.

In presentations I attended this year, Joyce Valenza, Springfield Township High School Library, Pennsylvania, said that we no longer can or need to have a physical collection of “just in case” materials available. The perfectly balanced collection that we learned to assemble in library school is not possible and may not even be needed. It IS necessary for us to provide access to high quality materials and information. Through interlibrary loan, immediately streamable downloads, accessible audio/e-book collections, and such services as PaperbookSwap.com, we can provide “long-tail” books for our students, whose interests are wider than ever. Local bookstores offer discounts for “just in time” books—and there are no shipping costs.

Our physical collection needs to reflect the students we have coming through our doors now. Our virtual collection needs to take advantage of state-provided databases while studying usage statistics to subscribe to others that are actually used—at the best price you can negotiate or obtain through consortia. Albany, New York, school library system director Linda Fox suggested on Facebook, “Take advantage of consortia. If you don’t have a school library system or regional consortium – start one! There is strength in numbers.”

To stretch your dollars, virtual resources need to include wide accessibility with remote passwords. Churchville-Chili (New York) Middle School librarian Marie Barron suggests, “When buying e-books, look for companies offering unlimited simultaneous users. Patrons might have to enter a password to access it remotely but it’s worth the inconvenience to have multiple copies available.”

About five years ago, I scrutinized my magazine order to remove titles that were readily available in databases, replacing many with the titles that would encourage students to read more—titles like Dirt Bike, Transworld Snowboarding (remember, it’s Lake Placid), Games, and Junior Miss. Pauline Herr, LaGrange (New York) Middle School librarian concurs: “I can’t buy a lot of periodicals anymore. I buy some that I hope will entice readers. I encourage students and teachers to use our databases for those periodicals that may [offer] more research and current events (such as Newsweek).” EBSCO’s recent purchase of exclusive rights to several magazines makes it difficult if you don’t have access to their databases. One solution is adding links on your Web site to free online versions of the magazines that are no longer full-text in your databases.

BARTERING


When you have credibility and logic on your side, you can make some interesting offers that can’t be refused. Mindy Holland from Pinewood Elementary School in Rotterdam, New York, convinced her principal to give the library half of the money that used to go into classroom libraries, a considerable amount. She used the money to set up an organized, catalogued book room that is available to all.

Sharing resources with another department is possible, too. After years of searching for instances of suspected plagiarism with mixed results, the English department chair and I shifted funds (with the help of the business manager) to purchase a subscription to Turnitin.com, keeping the connection to ethical use of information part of the school library program (we ordered and administered it).

COMMUNITY HELP


The investment in press releases, informative Web sites, board presentations, presentations to community groups, participation at PTO meetings, and other visibility and promotion activities pays dividends when your own budget needs to be supplemented. Amy Ipp wrote a proposal for her PTO when they lost the state funding for a database (EBSCO), and they agreed to fund it for the coming year.

Marie Barron’s PTO purchases paperback book giveaways during Teen Read Week and Black History Month while Lisa Von Drasek, Bank Street College of Education School for Children Librarian, New York City, tries not to buy paperback series books like Magic Tree House or Gooseburnps. Instead, she puts out a fall request to parents whose kids have outgrown them to donate them to the library. She also asks for donations for duplicate copies of high-interest series books like Lemony Snicket and Lightning Thief.

Lisa Hunt, librarian at Apple Creek Elementary School in Moore, Oklahoma, expected low or no funding this year, so she planned strategically by talking to her PTA, “Although we do book fairs each year (and use the money for the library), I know the PTA always targets their fundraising project for something the school needs. They were prepared that I would ask for this in August 2010. I did and they voted to support the library with 85 percent of their fundraising efforts this year.”

Henrico County’s very resourceful Theresa Harris from Glen Allen Elementary School, Virginia, gets support from parents for supplies during open house/back to school night: “I put book-shaped stickies on my door with a catchy phrase about supplies. On each sticky is a supply that I could use if parents want to donate items to the library. I usually put items such as a ream of colored paper, markers, stickers, hand sanitizer, tissues, empty coffee cans (for crayons, markers, etc), old wallets (we use those for Bunny Money by Rosemary Wells), etc. While I don’t get all the items, it is an easy, less invasive way to “beg” for supplies.”

Hermosa’s (California) fifth annual Taste at the Beach event will offer fine food from their best restaurants and a silent auction hosted by the Kiwanis Club. Proceeds from the social will benefit the libraries at Hermosa Valley School and Hermosa View School since the libraries’ hours of operation were cut back. The community is aware of the need and is supporting their students’ learning.

Debra Maier creates a “Celebrate with a Book” shelf display for a special event or birthday celebration, with inexpensive Junior Library Guild books from their backlist to offer gifts at a low cost. The PTA helps her by floating the original funds, and the checks or cash go back to them.

CONSORTIA LEVERAGING


Make full use of any cooperative services that might be available. In New York state, the regional Boards of Cooperative Services (BOCES) and school library systems provide services that can cut costs. In addition to negotiating the best database prices and loaning displays and professional books, Marie Barron’s BOCES media library loans iPod Shuffles to students. She shares that, “They are also willing to take suggestions for new purchases and have the ability to purchase the titles immediately, download the audiobook, upload it to the iPod, and ship it to the school. It’s an amazing service.” As Linda Fox said above, if you aren’t part of a consortium, start one.

GRANTS


This is certainly the time to write small and large grants. Lisa Hunt applied for the Dollar General Youth Literacy Grant and a Wal-Mart Grant. She says, “I’ve discovered the beauty of the small numbers grants. I used to skip over the things that were $100 or $200 maximum. However, I’ve learned that small amount is just enough to get the ten personal CD players I need, or two Flip cameras. Over the last five years, I’ve changed my planning strategy because we always have less money instead of more.”

Central New York school library system director Judy Marsh was recently awarded an Improving Literacy through School Libraries grant for $339,335 for two elementary school libraries, Geneva West and North Street. The funds have to be expended in a year! That grant was originally authorized at $250 million but has never been funded at more than $19.4 million. ALA successfully lobbied for it to be separated from other federal grants this year. ALA Council passed a unanimous resolution urging funding for at least $100 million to greatly benefit school libraries. Watch for advocacy opportunities to support this initiative.

FREE!


You sure can’t beat the price when resources are free. Donations are great—if they fit in your library’s collection. Always ask yourself whether the resource is worth more than the barcode and book pocket. Seriously, a donation policy or clause in your selection policy is helpful. My standard phrase is, “If we can’t find a place in our collection, I will offer them to teachers.” And I do. If they don’t need them, ALA has a donation fact sheet listing worthy causes: http://www.ala.org/ala/professionalresources/libfactsheets/alalibraryfactsheetl2.cfm.

Setting up wish lists is a strategic way to be ready if requests to help or monetary donations come your way. Colette D. Eason, librarian at the Marsalis Elementary School ISD, Dallas, Texas, suggests one way: “Mackin has a great program where parents, community, or others may donate to an account that you set up for the purpose of this program.” Other companies do so, too, as well as book fairs, both actual and virtual. Along with Scholastic’s fairs, Christine Schein, District Tech Strand Coordinator/ Information Literacy Specialist at Academy District 20, Colorado Springs, Colorado, suggests book fairs through Barnes and Noble or Borders because they set up and you can purchase through them with educator discount cards.

Marie Barron increases her collection by tying print and online resources together: “I can’t afford to purchase multiple copies of the popular graphic novels. So when the titles or volume numbers are out, I suggest the student try reading the missing volumes online. I have links to a few of the more popular Web sites for reading online on the library’s website.”

Karen Kliegman, Searingtown School in Albertson, New York, suggests stretching your library dollars virtually: “Take advantage of free Web 2.0 tools to take the place of expensive word processing, presentation, and mindmapping software.” Christine Schein suggests using open source software to replace or extend expensive software licenses. She listed Google Docs, Wordle, Wallwisher, Photostory, Audacity, Epearl, Moodle, and Moviemaker.

Christine Schein also suggested showing students how to use the online catalog at the public library. Students can use the holds feature and then pick up their materials. Lisa Weinstein, librarian at Century Junior High in Orland Park, Illinois, suggested borrowing displays from other librarians. One of her colleagues borrowed all the pieces needed for a bulletin board about books made into movies, saving money AND time. Not free, but cheap and helpful to the public library, is shopping library book sales, such as the Friends of the Library book sale where Stefanie Halliday of Bellville High School Library, Michigan, finds two to three books every week.

Debra Maier enters contests and free drawings, once winning a classroom set of paperback Curious George books. She also subscribes to free magazines, such as the LEGO magazine.

School libraries are crucial to learning but need resources to close the digital and print divide that widens as school budgets shrink. Your time and ingenuity can make a difference for your students. Your efforts will be appreciated by your staff, administration, and the public as you provide virtual resources and get those grants, donations, and loans from other libraries. And, of course, publicize your efforts. You will build that core of advocates to keep your program strong.

As preparation for this article, I surveyed school librarians by using my state school library association discussion list, AASLForum, LM_NET, and Facebook. To extend the “hit” beyond this article, I created a wikL Check out http://frugalschoollibrarian.wikispaces.com to adapt an idea for your library—and add YOUR best tip. In these lean times, let’s keep this going!

Additional Resources

Howard, Jacqueline. "Taste at the Beach Benefits School Libraries." Hermosa Beach Patch, 23 Aug. 2010. http://hermosabeach.patch.com/articles/taste-at-the-beach-benefits-school-libraries.

Sara Kelly Johns

MLA Citation

Johns, Sara Kelly. "Buying Smarter—How to Make the Library Dollar Go Farther. Your School Needs a Frugal Librarian." Library Media Connection, 29, no. 4, January 2011. School Library Connection, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Article/1979593.

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https://schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Article/1979593?topicCenterId=0

Entry ID: 1979593

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