Every library, no matter the type, answers to somebody. It may be a board of trustees, a superintendent, a provost, a city council, or any other range of people signing off on budgets. No matter how obviously valuable a library feels to the staff and patrons who use it every day, the people controlling the budget require numbers to justify expenses. To further complicate this, there are constant organizational and administrative shifts that put libraries in a position of constantly needing to prove their worth. Most commonly, this occurs on an annual basis, as your fiscal year turns over. Of course, it’s never that simple… Boards turn over. Funding priorities shift. New members ask questions like, “Why are we spending money on this?” without any of the institutional memory of why the collection, the programs, or the staffing levels look the way they do. A library that can’t quickly produce a clear, credible answer is a library that’s vulnerable.
What boards actually want to see
Boards are rarely asking, “Is the library good?” or “Do people like the library?” They’re asking more specific questions, like: Is this a good use of the money we’re responsible for? That means they tend to gravitate toward a fairly consistent set of numbers…
- Usage and circulation trends – How many items went out the door this year compared to last? Which formats and collections are growing or shrinking? Circulation is one of the simplest, most intuitive metrics a board member can grasp.
- Cost-per-use and return on investment – This is the one that resonates most with financially-minded board members. What does it cost the institution to deliver one “use” and how does that compare to what patrons would pay to access those same resources on their own? Calculating a “value of library services” figure, where total collection use is priced against retail equivalents, turns an abstract public good into a dollar figure.
- Year over year changes – A major factor under consideration is growth. Has the library grown? How do this year’s visits and circulation trends stack up against last year’s? The ability to demonstrate measurable growth, no matter how minute, can be impressive.
- Demonstration of demand – You’re not just trying to secure a budget; you’re trying to show what that budget will be used for. Show your board what areas are experiencing the most demand (be it by genre or resource type). Even gathering numbers on something as simply as the number of holds placed shows that patrons are actively engaged in seeking specific resources and that you require funding to better support those specific areas of your collection.
Quickly gathered and reliable data access is the real issue
None of this is a mystery to library staff. As librarians, we often already know how usage has trended and where the demand is growing. The real challenge is figuring out how to communicate those trends to the people holding the purse strings. That’s harder than it sounds when data lives in scattered reports, requires manual pulls from multiple systems, or takes a staff member half a day to assemble before a board meeting. A few consequences follow from that friction:
- Incomplete answers – A board asks for last quarter’s circulation-by-branch breakdown and the honest answer is “give us a week.” That delay alone can read as disorganization, even when it’s really just a bottleneck due to time constraints.
- Oversimplification – When pulling detailed numbers is slow, staff default to whatever’s easiest to generate, even if it’s not the metric that would actually make the case.
- Defensive reporting – The worst time to start building a case for a library’s budget is during a funding crisis. Libraries that report consistently, in good years and lean ones, have a track record to point to. Libraries that only pull numbers when threatened are starting from zero, under pressure, with a skeptical audience, which is an uphill battle.
Demonstrate your value before you’re asked to!
The strongest position a library can be in is one where usage and impact data are always current and easily accessible. Libraries that invest in the ability to answer questions and show their worth before it is demanded of them are protecting their budget, their staff, and their community. The strongest position a library can be in is one where usage and impact data are always current and easily accessible. Libraries that invest in the ability to answer questions and show their worth before it is demanded of them are protecting their budget, their staff, and their community.
About Surpass
Surpass Cloud is the easy-to-use, cloud-based library management system for libraries of all types and sizes. Whether you’re a school, church, museum, business, or any other organization with resources to lend, Surpass is likely a good fit for you. We pride ourselves on being affordable and flexible, with an expert support team ready to help you at a moment’s notice.
