Budget Woes

As always, the wish list is much longer than the budget will allow. Knowing the budget amount from last year, I have been creating a wish list through one of my library vendors since last January. Students would ask for the latest in a series or for a book that had been lost in the past. Naturally, the list seemed to multiply itself overnight!

Today I received the news of my preliminary budget. Unfortunately, it is only one-third of the budget from last year. Obviously, the list is too long. Now how do I cut a list by two-thirds?

This was truly difficult. I kept the items teachers had asked for since it is for classroom instruction and will benefit a lot of students. However, that still left the vast majority of books on the list to look at and reduce.

What is on the original list?

• The continuation of the 3 most popular graphic novel series
• The books in the middle of 12 series that have been lost over time
• The continuation of 8 novel series
• Updated nonfiction books on topics used in a lot of research projects
• Highly recommended books students suggested
• And even more.

What is on the current list?

Well, I did keep the "in the middle" books since students starting a new series get frustrated when the books in the middle are missing. I postponed the nonfiction books until later since databases and reference books on those topics are available. As for the continuation books? We can only get one-third of what we need to finish out the series, but at least students will be able to continue them. Unfortunately, I could only get a few of the highly recommended books at this time. I tried to be fair and cut it all down by the "two-thirds" amount.

Naturally, budget concerns are always present in education. However, I know the only way to "fix" the problem is to raise taxes which then create budget woes for everyone, not just the library.