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Kimberly Ragghianti
FRIT 7331 Class GSU
Key Assessment Section 5
Budget Sources
Current Sources of Funds/Formulas that Apply:
Media Center Department Budget
K-5th $15.31 per student, 6th-12th $13.03 per student
(information from the chart Our Funding History and Its Impact
on Georgia Media Centers)
Dougs Magic Formula for a Maintenance Budget (Johnson, p.
107) as well as the Growth Budget
Maintenance Budget = replacement rate X total number of items
X average cost (Replacement Rate = 100%/number of years in
the life span of material)
Growth Budget = supported collection size current collection
size/years to achieve target size X the average cost of a book
Fundraising Efforts:
Scholastic Spring Book Fair
Gift-a-Book (a donation of a book or set of books in honor of a
childs birthday, graduation, or other special occasions)
Potential Sources of Revenue:
Fundraising Events
Grants and Foundations
Staff Development Funds
Local Business Partnerships
Awards from Contests/Organizations
Principal/School Boards Discretionary Budget
PTA/PIE (Parent Teacher Association/Parents in Education) Funds
(AASL, p. 36)
Evaluation of the Adequacy of Funding for the Media Center:
After reading many news articles, chapters in books about the
media center budget, and even librarian blogs it is safe to say that the
adequacy of funding for the program based on current needs is a hot
topic to say the least. As a media specialist student now studying to
become a teacher-librarian in the future it is impossible to gage
whether the funds will be sufficient in quality to meet the needs of the
school media center where I will be without a crystal ball, but airing on

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the positive side I would say the funding will be there. Most likely the
amount will be less then ideal, yet with the knowledge I have gained I
will be able to propose an effective library budget.
In the article Budgeting as Easy as 1-2-3 Gail Dickinson has a
three step process 1 knowledge, 2 planning, and 3 implementation.
She stresses that you have to ask for what you need and even when
they say no keep asking. She gives a good motivational basketball
quote, You miss 100 percent of the shots you dont take that can
easily be applied to the budget process. As it says in the Indispensable
Librarian (Johnson, p. 105) you have to list items needed and back
that up with relevant data, rationale, and money amounts. Another
phase that gets dropped often is There is no money in the budget
however Johnson gives a good comeback asking, Is there money in
the budget for textbooks, science supplies, for the office copier?
When the answer is yes then the question turns from Is there money
in the budget? to How do we choose to spend the money in the
budget?
Another excellent point Johnson made was the importance of
weeding materials, out-dated books, and obsolete technologies. He
says, A well-weeded, and thus smaller, collection sends the message
that the library may not be adequately funded. (Johnson, p. 111) This
shows rather then tells others that the media center does indeed need
the resources it asks for to stay current. He gives the example of going
into your neighbors pantry and seeing shelves filled with cereal boxes,
so you might think your neighbor had plenty to eat. But what if those
boxes were empty? Same thing with shelves filled with collections of
books. We need useful and useable materials ready for teachers and
students not just objects to fill the shelves. This example from
Johnson is important when viewing the budget because others will see
the stuff and be reluctant to fulfill or increase a tight budget, so
showing what you really have in your media center is key.
Purposed Budget:
I am unable to gain access to the actual budget from the school, so I
have formulated an adequate budget based on the needs of the
program and goals of the media center. At $15.31 per student x 496
students = $7593.76 for the media center. This budget must cover the
maintenance of current resources, future growth, and need for new
technology. Additional funds from the yearly book fair, grants, and gift
donations will help to balance the budget.

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November 2, 2014 (up-dated later in November 2014)