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PLA/LAMA/ASCLA Certified Public Library Administrator (CPLA) Program Core Course

Course Name

“Dollars and Sense: Tools for Planning and Carrying Out Your Library’s Mission” (budgeting and finance)

General Description

The principles and practices of budgeting and finance are covered in this 2½ day course. Effective use of public sector budgeting techniques, cost accounting, performance measures, and capital project budgets are covered.

Components

  1. Concept of library as a public good; impact on library budget of government structure and legal requirements and the political, economic, and labor relations environment.
  2. Role of library budget in planning; use of budget as a tool to implement library’s plan.
  3. Various methods of preparing and presenting operating budget; line-item, program, performance, zero-base, and lump sum.
  4. Budget cycle: preparation and submission, approval, execution including internal controls and internal and external audits; financial reports, financial forecasting, and cash flow issues; use of electronic spreadsheets; accountability.
  5. Evaluation tools: unit cost, cost accounting, cost benefit analysis, cost effectiveness, performance measures, output indicators, operation indicators, and program impact indicators.
  6. Capital budgeting: purpose, techniques, funding sources, and financing mechanisms.

Learning Objectives

Participants will be able to:

  1. Describe the relationship between budgeting and overall planning for the organization’s goals and objectives.
  2. Develop a program budget based on a line-item budget (convert a line-item budget to a program budget).
  3. Perform cost benefit analysis for specific library services.
  4. Develop performance measures and operations indicators for specific library functions.
  5. Identify and evaluate the feasibility of using various potential sources of funding for a major capital project.
  6. Present a program budget or a capital project budget and financing plan to the library’s governing authority or general government administrator.

Suggested Methods

  1. The bibliography will be mailed in advance. Participants will be asked to read at least one of the complete books listed and at least two of the articles and/or chapters and to prepare a written report on the key concepts covered in each source. This report will be due at the beginning of the first day of the course.
  2. Instructor will present components 1,2,4,5, and 6 with lectures and case studies, component 3 with models of each form of operating budget.
  3. A workbook will be created and used to give participants hands on experience creating a program budget for a case study of a public library with a line item budget. The completed program budget will be due to the presenter at the beginning of the last ½ day of the course.
  4. The workbook will also have exercises for participants to practice developing unit cost, performing cost benefit analysis and cost effectiveness studies. These exercises will be due to the presenter at the beginning of the second day of the course.
  5. The workbook will give participants hands-on experience developing performance measures and output indicators for the program budget created in #3. These will be due to the presenter at the same time as the program budget.
  6. Participants will submit a written report of 3–5 pages at the beginning of the first day of the course which will describe the budgeting system used by their current employer, relating to it the concepts learned in the readings. (If the current employer is not a public library, the participant should select a public library convenient and accessible for him/her to use for this report.)
  7. Participants will develop a capital project budget and a plan of action for funding the project, including specific sources of funding, for a defined project based on a real case at their home library (if none are identifiable, the instructor will supply a case study). This material will be due to the presenter at the end of the course.
  8. Participants will make a presentation to the class during the final 1½ days of the course of either the program budget or their capital project and financing plan. The class and instructor will assume the roles of library board, city manager, and/or county administrator and critique the presentations.

Evaluations

  1. The presenter(s) will comment on the participant’s written reports and workbook exercises.
  2. The presenter(s) will evaluate the participant’s participation in the course sessions.
  3. The presenter(s) will evaluate the participant’s program budgets and their capital budgets and financing plans as submitted in writing.
  4. The presenter(s) and the class will evaluate each participant’s presentation to the class as described in #8 above.
  5. The presenters will give a Pass/Fail grade to each participant based on the above evaluation of their overall work and participation in the course. This work and its satisfactory completion will demonstrate the participant’s having achieved the above Learning Objectives.

Key Sources

See attached bibliography.

Possible Presenters

  • Local or Regional Public Finance Officers

Note: Presenter(s) will need to prepare the workbook described above or provide/suggest alternative methods of instruction and evaluation. If at all possible, presenter(s) should be available for consultation by telephone or by e-mail with participants during the time between the initial mailing to participants which will describe the reading and pre-assignments and the days of the course itself.

Budget/Finance Core Course Bibliography

Campbell, Jerry D., Library Trends. “Getting Comfortable with Change.” Library Trends, V. 42, No. 3, pp. 448–59, Winter 1994.

Daubert, Madeline J., Financial Management for Small and Medium Sized Libraries. ALA, 1993.

Devlin Barry T., “Basic Budget Primer: Choosing the Best Budget for Your Library,” The Bottom Line, V. 2, No. 3 (1988) pp. 20–24.

Hall, Richard B., Financing Public Library Buildings. Neal Schuman, 1994.

Martin, Murray S., Collection Development and Finance: A Guide to Strategic Library-Materials Budgeting. ALA, 1995.

Prentice, Ann E., Financial Planning for Libraries. Second Ed., Scarecrow Press, 1996. It is somewhat dated, even though it is a 1996 imprint. Chap. IV—“Data Gathering Methodologies” and Chap. V—“Budget Design” provide helpful background information, analysis, methodology, and explanation of terms.

Robinson, Barbara M., and Sherman Robinson, “Strategic Planning and Program Budgeting for Libraries.” Library Trends, V. 42, No. 3, pp. 420–47, Winter 1994.

Turock, Betty I., Creating a Financial Plan: A How-to-do-it Manual for Libraries, Neal Schuman, 1992.

Warner, Alice Sizer, “Library Budget Primer,” Wilson Library Bulletin. V. 67, No. 9 (1993) pp. 44–46.

Young, Virginia B., The Library Trustee: A Practical Handbook. Fifth Ed., ALA, 1995. Chap. 11 “The Trustee and Finances” by Herbert H. Davis, Chap. 12 “A Fundraising Primer for Public Library Trustees” by Glen E. Holt and Thomas F. Schafley, and App. 8, “Budget Checklist”; are helpful, pp. 71–79; 80–88; and 215–18.