16 September 2025, Day at the library, Budgeting, OCLC, Shelving in a Dewey library

Budgeting was the main focus of the day. We looked at the process of budgeting at the library. Went over the last several years of how the total assessed valuation for the district had changed and the effect on the tax rate.

Also looked at the way different fund accounts change over the years. How eBooks and Database subscription costs have risen. Some of the new electronic content services like Hoopla; Charge monthly on the use of what items were used by the patrons. Hoopla has eBooks', movies, Magazines and other content. These have had a great effect on the budgeting process.

The district has Four (4) Tax Increment finance areas in the district. How the monies are distributed when the districts end was interesting. The West Jersey Trucking district is renovating the Alcoa plant and turning it into warehousing is the newest one. This revenue will be available in 4 years.

The district has a large solar farm being constructed and two Wind Turbine projects that will operational in 2026. The Solar and Wind projects have tax incentives from the State of Illinois and do not increase the value of the assessed valuation. So there is a formula used based on the megawatt that is generated to file for replacement of lost taxation funding for these projects.

Lillie M. Evans library is also very dependent on grants with the largest being the Project Next Generation from the Illinois State Library. This is a Stem Grant that has been very helpful with the maker space items and library of things.

The Live and Learn grant is a construction grant that has a match from the library to get full benefits. This was used for two expansions of the library.

The latter part of the day was spent working the circulation desk. Worked with the interlibrary loan requests through OCLC. Went through the processes of seeing the request, checking the system for availability in the library. Pulled the book and did the computer and paperwork to send the different books out of state. OCLC requests that are outside the state have to use the U.S. Post Office for delivery. In state movements are handled through the regular delivery systems.

PLA Forces: Force 4 Asset Driven Impact. The library was an active member in working with the TIF grants. They saw the value to the community to utilize the opportunity to increase the tax base. Which helped all the communities and government entities. It also showed the area that it was forward thinking.

Force 2 The evolving role of the public library. The grant opportunities were very enriching to the community. The new STEM equipment and classes could not have been realized without the grants. This was showing the community that the core services were expanding in the library.


Work Time: 6 hours                    Semester total 20 hours

Comments

  1. GabrielSeptember 17, 2025 at 7:49 AM

    Taxes, grants, and other funding sources, together with the resulting budget are the nuts and bolts behind the provision of services and collections.

    ReplyDelete

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