PVLD Director's Blog

Money, Money, Money

It's been longer than usual since my last post, mostly because we have been busy dealing with the fallout from the California budget - which includes the State "borrowing" 8% or more of PVLD's property tax revenue.  Since property taxes make up about 87% of our revenue, that's a big hit, and there is no expectation that we will be repaid before June of 2013. That's why my thoughts and energies have been focused on the budgeting rather than blogging.

PVLD has already felt the effect of the economic downturn and lower assessed property values which meant we've already had to overcome an $800,000 budget shortfall (12% of our total budget) for the current fiscal year by trimming library open hours, reducing our purchases of books and other materials for the library collection, eliminating our security guard service, and making cuts in every other budget category.  We've also increased fees for meeting room rentals, overdue items, and movie rentals; added new fees; and expanded our Passport Service in order to bring in more revenue...so finding another $450,000 or more is no easy task.

The good news is that we started really tightening our belt in early 2009 when it became apparent that the State would likely borrow local property tax revenues to solve their own budget problem.  As a result, we ended the 2008/2009 fiscal year with a surplus, and are starting this fiscal year with more money "in the bank" than we had anticipated.  This came as a  surprise, as we thought the budget variances we were seeing during the spring were due to the timing of invoices but they turned out to be real.  Great work by the staff!

The staff has also scoured the budget for further cost savings and have managed to squeeze another $220,000 or so out of the budget through rebidding service contracts, energy management to reduce utilities costs, lower Workers Compensation and general liability insurance premiums, some organizational changes resulting in lower personnel costs, and plain old reduced spending in a number of areas. Again great work by all concerned!

The net result is that we will have a budget deficit this year, but we have sufficient money in our reserves to cover it...albeit with some cash flow challenges.  We are also projecting a budget deficit for next fiscal year, but that assumes we reverse some of the budget cuts from this year.  If we can hold the line on all of those cuts and possibly find some additional revenue sources (we're working hard on that!) we should come close to a balanced budget as long as property values don't drop more than expected.

It's going to be a tough few years though, with revenues projected to grow at no more than 1-2%/year, the spectre of inflation, and a labor contract that seemed very conservative a year ago but has "salaries and related" expenses rising at a significantly greater rate than our revenues.

We'll be paying close attention to every expenditure, thinking "outside the box" about how to generate more revenue, being very cautious about adding new programs given our limited staff and financial resources, and supporting the Friends of the Library in their efforts to expand their fundraising. 

Given what I've seen our staff achieve as we've navigated through the rough budget waters of the past few months, though, I think we'll actually come out the other side of this crisis in good shape, and maybe even stronger than we were....and I don't think that is just wishful thinking!

More on why libraries matter

Yesterday at a meeting of volunteers who are helping us with our fundraising efforts one of the people in attendance reported that she had just had a conversation with a community member who questioned why we need libraries in the age of the Internet. 

Coincidentally today PVLD employee Kendel Cornwell told me that about this segment from the Today Show this morning.  It's as compelling a description of the important role libraries play as any I've seen!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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Libraries are an essential part of a community's infrastructure

This year I am Chair of the California Library Association's Legislative Committee, which means I am getting an up-close look at how the perilous state of the economy and of the California budget are threatening library services. 

Libraries across the state are reporting deep cuts to their budgets resulting in closed branches, reduced hours, elimination of online resources, book budgets that are being reduced by 50% or more, layoffs, furloughs, and hiring freezes.  At the same time we are seeing extraordinary growth in demand for library services, especially in communities that have been hardest hit by the recession where the public library may be the only place people can come for free access to computers to prepare resumes and submit job applications.  I can hear the strain in the voices of my colleagues as they try to balance these competing forces and still provide the best possible service to their communities.

All too often it feels like we are in competition with other public services, with the implication being that in a community's hierarchy of needs libraries are somehow less essential than "public safety" typically defined as fire and police. 

People forget, and librarians find it difficult to articulate, that libraries play a unique role in a community in that they both play a role in public safety (by providing safe spaces and activities for people of all ages, providing access to medical and other basic information to support basic well-being, helping people find jobs, enhance their skills and otherwise sustain financial security)  and help fulfill needs that are higher up on Maslow's hierarchy as an integral part of the educational infrastructure and a center for lifelong learning.

I've been reading a delightful little book called Dewey: the small town library cat who touched the world ,which is bringing this home to me.  I thought it was going to be a sweet story about a cat, and it is, but it's also about the important role played by the library in a struggling farming community in Iowa during the farm crisis of the early 1980s.  It's also a terrific read!

In yet another example of the synchronicity that the Internet fosters, this morning I came across this blog post by Stephen Abram.  He hits the nail on the head when he writes

"I and most people would pay a hefty fee to be guaranteed that I and my family would never have to visit or be visited by the police, fire crews, hospital staff, or ambulances. The only thing on that list that I pay taxes for that I willingly and gladly choose to go to often is the public library.

And that's different in a special way. All the others are awesome and Lord forbid they not be there or funded properly. But the world will be a lesser place and life in our communities damaged forever, if our public libraries are sacrificed at the altar of budgeting."

And like Stephen I was thrilled to see this video from Minnesota (shared on the always interesting The M Word blog about marketing for libraries), which puts libraries alongside fire and police as an essential local service

These are tough times, and I know that cuts in basic services are inevitable.  My hope, and my goal, is that we can help decision-makers understand that libraries are in fact basic services and that when cuts need to be made libraries are no less important to the safety and well-being of our communities than police and fire, schools, and hospitals.

Hats off to the people of Minnesota for expressing it so well.

Tough times, tough choices

The budget situation for the State of California, and by extension for local governments like PVLD is grim and getting grimmer.  We are faced with continued declines in assessed property values, resulting in flattening or even declining property tax revenues, as well as the near certainty that the State will "borrow" local property tax revenues.

The PVLD staff have already trimmed nearly 10% from our 09/10 budget, and it now looks like we need to cut another 10%.  We've already cut our budget for online databases and for library materials, left several vacant positions unfilled, reduced the budget for staff training, and tightened our belts in a number of other areas...and now it looks like we need to cut as much as an additional $700,000.

My job is to work with staff and the Board of Trustees to come up with a budget that does the least harm to the greatest number of stakeholdersin the short-term while protecting the health and vitality of the library district in the long term.

I've been having some sleepless nights a I wrestle with the tough choices that need to be made.  I don't see any way of balancing the budget without cuts to library open hours; further reductions to the budget for books and other library materials; and higher overdue, DVD rental, meeting room rental, and other fees.  

This will result in reduced services and higher "out of pocket" costs for library users just when they need us most, as evidenced by the rapid growth in library use.  This fiscal year-to-date (July 08 through April 09) PVLD's door count is up 20%, our circulation of library books and other materials is up 16%, and attendance at our programs and events is up 12% compared to the same period last year.

It also will result in hardship for our staff as we will need to freeze compensation; and consider unpaid furloughs to align staffing costs with reduced library open hours; and continue to freeze non-essential vacant positions at the same time that the staff is working harder than ever to keep up with the demand for services, we are asking them to do more to support revenue-generating activities such as the Passport Service, and we are already short-staffed in a number of areas.

As a leader one of my goals (actually I see it as a duty!) is to do all of this without losing community support for the library or hurting staff morale.  This is what keeps me up at night.

My husband manages the Manhattan Beach Library, which is one of the 84 libraries in the Los Angeles County Library System so he is a fairly small cog in a very large wheel.  Not having much influence can be frustrating and most of the time I wouldn't trade my job for his, but this morning we were talking about the budget challenges and he said something like "I guess I'll wait and see what comes down from Library Headquarters, since there's nothing I can do about the situation".  At that moment not being the one who has to make the hard choices seemed pretty good to me! 

Libraries on the front lines of the recession

  For all those who wonder if there is a role for libraries in the age of the Internet - here's more compelling evidence of why we matter.  Librarian Eva Gronowska of the Southfield Public Library outside of Detroit has written an amazing and moving description of how the recession has affected her work and her community in the April 6th issue of Newsweek. 

We are seeing the same trends even in a relatively affluent area like the Palos Verdes Peninsula - more job-seekers using our computers and other resources; books on personal finance, frugality, and related topics flying off the shelves of our "rainy day" display; and library use that grows each month.

On a Friday afternoon at the end of a very long week Ms. Gronowska's article was a heartwarming reminder of why we are here...and that at the heart of the myriad roles we play for our communities is the most important of all, "a bastion of hope".

Libraries in tough times - more than books!

My husband and I were driving between errands on Saturday morning and happened to catch this great piece on National Public Radio's Morning Edition.  This morning a friend forwarded me the link to this story from CNN.com on Saturday.  Both include some great examples of how libraries can help people navigate these choppy (to say the least!) financial waters...and free access to books is just a part of the story.  

Here at PVLD we're trying to do our share by offering financially-oriented programs like the "Building Wealth" program in early February; beefing up our collection of business, job-search, and investment resources; offering free online access to the Value Line and Morningstar investment advisory services; and trying to figure out how to add more computers....and like the libraries mentioned in the news stories our usage is way up.

Apart from the interesting content, the other great thing about these stories and the many others that have been popping up on the subject of the value libraries provide in this economy is that they are being aired at all.  For years it seemed that the media's view of libraries was as the information age equivalent of the dinosaur, doomed by the advent of the Internet.  It's great to see the recognition dawning that while traditional media are withering away in the face of the ubiquitous Internet, libraries with their multifaceted roles, services, and ways of touching people are thriving.

  

The Importance of School Libraries

Yesterday my husband emailed me this story from Sunday's New York Times about the changing role of school librarians and the role that a qualified school library media specialist (a term that usually refers to someone with both a teaching credential and a Master's degree in library/information science) can play in teaching the information literacy skills that are so important in today's digital age.

The NY Times story particularly resonated for me because our local school district just announced the layoffs of all of the part-time library aides who run the school libraries at all of the PV elementary schools. In practical terms this means that effective April 1st the elementary school libraries, which like those in many California schools have long been staffed entirely by part-time paraprofessional aides rather than professionaly qualified librarians, will either be entirely unstaffed or staffed by parent volunteers.

The announcement of the layoffs was accompanied by a statement from the School Superintendent (whom I like and respect, and who is having to make very difficult decisions in the face enormous fiscal challenges) to the effect that school libraries "are not core to the educational program".  Ouch!

There is a very large body of research that demonstrates a direct correlation between access to good quality school libraries and educational achievement, and that demonstrates the educational value that a qualified school library media specialist can provide in terms of curriculum support and information literacy education.  Properly staffed and funded, a school library can be at the very heart of the educational program.

I have no criticism of the soon-to-be laid off library aides in PV - they are talented people who do a great job encouraging reading and providing access to books and other educational resources with little training, limited access to professional support, and scant funding.  I've thought for a long time, however, that much more could be achieved if they were supported by a qualified school library media specialist at the District level.  Now it is clear that even that will be a distant dream.

In the meantime we are expecting that our usage will go up as students and parents turn to the public libraries for homework support...we just wish we were better equipped to help.  Our staff resources are already stretched with current programs and rising library use, and while our librarians are outstanding they are not trained educators and lack the pedagogical knowledge that a school library media specialist brings.  We also lack the relationships with individual teachers and the "on the ground" knowledge of what is being taught in the classroom that are a product of daily interactions on the school site.

While I fully understand the fiscal crisis facing the schools, I can't help but wish that something other than the school libraries were the first vicitms.

Budget challenges

We are putting the finishing touches on the PVLD "mid-year" budget, which will be presented to the Board of Trustees next week.  PVLD operates on a July 1-June 30 fiscal year, and each January we take a look at our actual revenues and expenses for the first half of the year and then make adjustments to our budget to reflect any circumstances that were unforeseen when the budget was approved the previous spring.  We also update our forecast for the next fiscal year to give us a more realistic sense of what our financial future looks like.

The good news is that despite some pluses and minuses in individual budget line items, we are forecasting that we will end the current fiscal year with a very slightly larger than anticipated surplus thanks to some great work by the staff to cut costs and to some unexpected grants and other income.  This will allow us to fund all necessary capital maintenance projects this year and next.

The bad news is that as we look to 2009/2010 we have cut back our forecast of anticipated property tax revenue and are facing inflationary cost increases in a number of areas.  The result is that we are currently facing a projected deficit of $124,000 in 09/10, will barely meet our minimum reserve policy, and will not have enough to fund necessary capital maintenance projects in 2010/2011.  And even if the economy and housing markets improve in the next year or so, the current decline in the stock market almost certainly means higher pension costs in 2011/2012 and beyond.

On the (somewhat) brighter side, coming up with $124,000 in additional revenues and/or cost savings for next year won't be easy, but it's less than 2% of our total budget...and we are much better off than many other organizations.

Recently I attended a meeting of about 25 Library Directors from the greater Los Angeles area, most of whom reported that they are being asked by their jurisdictions (unlike PVLD and Buena Park most public libraries are part of city or county government) to cut their budgets by anywhere from 5% to 15%....targets that are almost impossible to achieve without significant cuts to staff and services.

That was followed by a conversation last Friday with State Librarian Susan Hildreth, who was at work despite the fact that like other State employees she and all of the other State Library staff were technically on furlough and not being paid.

At lunchtime today I heard our local School Superintendent, Walker Williams, talk about the huge budget cuts the School District is facing in the current fiscal year, which have already resulted in the issuing of layoff notices to many of the non-classroom staff including all of the library and technology aides in the elementary schools, with many more layoffs to come.  

The grim news from the School District was followed by seeing  this notice on the Buena Park Library District blog  announcing reductions in employee pay and benefits this fiscal year.

My conclusion?  Based on what we know today we certainly have a challenge ahead of us, but it's not an insurmountable one.  This spring we're working on a new strategic plan, which will certainly include finding ways to raise revenues and making careful choices about how we spend our money...and knowing how creative our employees are I think we'll find a way to close the budget gap without significantly reducing services and without making employees bear the burden in their paychecks.

Of course if the State decides to "borrow" our property tax revenues as a way of solving their budget mess, or the impact of the stock market decline on our pension costs comes sooner than 2010/11, then the challenge will be much greater and all bets are off.  In the meantime we'll be doing verything we can to negotiate these very tricky waters.

Libraries as "Homes For Ingenuity"

It's Friday afternoon. At PVLD that means casual dress and fewer meetings than most other days.  Don't know whether its the jeans or the "free" time, but I also find that Fridays are a good day to let my mind wander a bit from the day-to-day demands of running the library. 

I'd saved this article from PC World a few weeks ago, and when I read it again it really caught my fancy.  Don't you just love the idea of public libraries as "homes for the human imagination" with the library staff (and volunteers and or even customers) sharing their special knowledge and talents? Of the library as a hive of creative energy and activity? 

Read the article and see if it doesn't get your creative juices flowing...Happy Friday!

Libraries - great value in tough times

Just before Christmas Parade Magazine ran this little article on how budget shortfalls are leading to the possibility of library closures across the country at the same time as library use is rising.  Since then there has been some good news on the library closure front, as a concerted advocacy effort by Philadelphia library users has led to a court order that (at least temporarily) averts the closure of their libraries.  More information can be found on this local Philadelphia TV story.

What caught my eye in the Parade article, however, was the statement that "According to one story, a family of four saves as much as $2500 a year by borrowing 10 items per month instead of buying."

That got me thinking about the economic value PVLD delivers to our community. 

First, I have to note that public library services aren't "free."  In PVLD's case they are paid for by an allocation of local property taxes (over 87% of our bduget this year) supplemented by a miniscule amount of state funding; interest income; internally-generated revenue from things like movie rentals, meeting room rentals, overdue fines, and our passport acceptance and notary services; and gifts and grants.

If you consider just our property tax revenue as the price all PVLD residents pay for library services, on average each of the Palos Verdes Peninsula's approximately 70,000 residents contributes about $80/year in property taxes towards the cost of operating our libraries.

That means that if the hypothetical family of four referenced in the Parade article were an "average" family living on the Peninsula they would pay $360/year for library services whether they use them or not.  (I know that not everyone who lives on the Peninsula pays property taxes directly, but even if they don't own property their landlord contributes on their behalf and it is reflected in their rent. I also know that averages are not reality - some families will pay more than this and some less, but you gotta start somewhere!)

If, however, they do as the article suggests and save $2500/year by checking out 10 items/month instead of buying them they have received $2500 of value for the cost of $360.  Not bad!

But, one might argue, unlike many libraries PVLD charges for audio book, movie and video game rentals so if the 10 items/month checked out by our hypothetical family include these items the savings go down.  That's true, but even if every one of the 120 items checked out had a $1 rental fee the total annual cost to the family would only increase to  $480 and they would still save over $2000/year....maybe more when you consider that many books and movies cost more than $25, and video games can cost $50 or more to buy.

In fact, I think the savings are even greater.  For one thing, the $2500 savings doesn't include the value of access to online resources such as those offered through the library website and the value of these can be substantial! 

A one year individual subscription to the online version of the Value Line Investment Service is $538/year.  PVLD offers it at no charge to our library cardholders.  A twelve month subscription to the Ancestry.com family history and genealogy service is over $150.  PVLD offers both the library version of Ancestry.com and the complementary service Heritage Quest at no charge.  Individuals can pay for online tutoring from the Tutor.com service for approximately $30/hour....or they can use Brainfuse.com, a comparable service offered through the library website, for free.  If they are interested in learning a language they can pay $549 to purchase the Spanish module of Rosetta Stone, or they can use the library's free Mango Languages online service to learn any of 10 languages (or if they are not a native English speaker, to learn English).  And those are just some of our online services.

If our hypothetical family takes advantage of all of the specific online services mentioned above they could save an additional $1200/year or more, and because all of them except the library version of Ancestry.com are available remotely from home or office they can also save on gas!

And let's not forget library programs.  It's hard to place a value on a story time, movie showing, or concerts but it's not outrageous to think that a family that takes advantage of several of these kinds of events each month instead of paying for comparable activities could save $30 or more each month or $360/year.

The bottom line?  A family of four living and paying property taxes on the Palos Verdes Peninsula pays $360 in property taxes each year to support library services.  If they check out 10 items/month and return them on time their net savings are at least $2000 or more than 5.5x their property tax contribution even if they pay a rental fee for all 10 items.  If they take advantage of our online services they could save another $1200 or more, increasing their return to nearly 9x their property tax contribution....and up to 10x their tax contribution if they also attend library events and activities.

Now that's what I call powerful value in tough economic times!