Friday, October 13, 2006

What is a Library Worth?

Library Stuff points out a neat calculator that tabulates how much the library is worth to you.

at 10:02 AM

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love this!

I did a Toastmaster's presentation on this when I worked in Benton, AR. I found out what part of each dollar of property tax went to the library and figured the cost to the homeowner of a $50,000 house (this was years ago and in Benton :)) Then I filled some bags with library items and unloaded them onto a table as I described a family with a "do-it-yourself" father, a cooking mother (both of whom read bestsellers), a teenaged daughter and elementary-school son who both had school and personal interests, and a preschooler who attended storytimes as well as taking home a stack of books every week. I talked about the computers, summer reading programs, and piled books, videos high on the table to represent a month's worth of materials used by one family. Then I extrapolated the cost for a year just for materials.

I think their tax payment came to something like $14 for $400 a year of materials and programs.

Unfortunately, as the Children's Librarian, I never had the oppoprtunity to do the presentation for adult community groups, but it knocked the socks off that mostly professional group.

The display South Branch did for the meeting of potential funders was along the same lines--a shopping bag and the title "Best Bargain in Town!"

1:04 PM
Kevin Dixon said...

Linda also sent me this website.

Here's a site from the Buffalo and Erie County PL's public website, showing their public the Return on Their Investment:
http://www.buffalolib.org/aboutthelibrary/ect.asp

2:57 PM

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