MULTNOMAH COUNTY
LIBRARY
205 N.E. Russell Street, Portland, OR 97212-3796, Phone: (503)988-5402, Fax (503)988-5441
Ginnie Cooper, Director of Libraries
AA Memo 86/02
Posted
MEMORANDUM
TO: All Staff
FROM: Carolyn M. Myers, Collections Services Manager
DATE: August 21, 2002
SUBJECT: Materials Budget for FY 2002-2003
This memo announces a rather challenging Materials Budget for FY 2002-2003. This is the fifth and last year
of the levy budget. In past years, we have been able to allocate 15% of the total library budget for books and
other materials. This year we will only be able to allocate 12.5% to the materials budget, and even that
amount is still subject to the constraints and demands upon the County General Fund. Last year we had to
reduce the materials budget by more than $400,000 midyear, and in case the Library budget is reduced, I
have held $500,000 in reserve. Of course, that money will be allocated to the materials budget funds if the
budget stays at the current level. The total amount of the Library budget for books and other materials is
$5,640,468. This amount includes estimated revenues from The Library Foundation, Friends of the Library,
Oregon Community Foundation, and all grant funding for books and other materials. If you wish to compare
this year's budget to last year's, please review AA memo 80-01 dated August 24, 2001.
While the amount of funding is not as much as we would like, the library budget is still a good one. And we
have been able to develop wonderful collections over the past years that are currently serving our public and
that will continue to serve for many years. We purchased two completely new library collections this past
year (Fairview and Northwest) and expanded the Hollywood Library collection significantly. Our circulation
reflects the value our customers put on our collections. I see the coming year as only one tight year in the
middle of several past and future very good years.
Obviously working with a more limited budget presents challenges to everyone purchasing materials and for
those of you serving customers. I thank everyone for your input. I have appreciated the careful expressions
and thoughtfulness behind the comments. Naturally, I have not been able to incorporate all the suggestions
in my decisions.
My approach to a limited budget is to give a priority to support collection-related initiatives in the Library
Plan-- such as Libros, the small business initiative, 55+ materials, abundant current and popular materials,
student information, literacy support.
Secondly, the Central Library has just completed a detailed analysis of the Humanities and Science &
Business collections. The priorities identified by that study (more materials on Africa, Asia, Central and South
America and Oregon and the Pacific Northwest) should receive first attention in the purchase of materials.
I also intend to support electronic resources and some non-book formats at a level comparable to the
previous year. Electronic resources are available to customers 24 hours day/7 days a week in their homes;
and the investment in these databases greatly enhances the capability of every library collection. DVDs and
videos are among our highest turnover items as well as being responsible for a high percentage of our
suggestions for purchase, so I have left that funding at a level similar to the previous year.
I know there has recently been some discussion on mcl.general about saturation buying. I also intend to
support this continuing service for our customers; and I wanted to share with you some of my reasons why I
think it is important to continue this process, albeit at a reduced level. We began this service with a
recommended formula of 30-40 copies per 12,000 square feet of library space. Translated into our total
square footage, we initially purchased 300-400 copies of around 15 projected best-selling titles in October
2001.
After tracking, we saw that we didn't need to buy that many copies to satisfy our intention that customers
would be able to walk into our libraries and find bestsellers on shelf ready to check out. We also carefully
tracked at which libraries the books seemed to be popular and where they seemed less popular and sat
longer on shelves before being checked out. So we learned, and made modifications when the next titles
were chosen. For the most part, we found that buying 100-200 copies satisfied the holds, and that copies of
the current materials could be on shelves after a couple of circulations. We changed the distribution profiles
to reflect the usage library by library. And, of course, we had to cut our budget by $420,000 in late
November, which also made a change in the number of titles and copies we could purchase.
Saturation buying has results in terms of the number of total circulations. For example, Anne Rice's Blood
and Gold, added in October 2001, has 3921 total circulations. Rice's Merrick, added in 2000, has 971 total
circulations. Or consider Philip Margolin's Associate, added in the fall of 2001, which has 5502 circulations as
compared to Wild Justice, added in 2000, with a circulation of 2790. Or Patricia Cornwell's Isle of Dogs
(added fall 2001) with a circulation of 5714 compared to The Last Precinct (2000), with a usage of 2909. Or
Robert B. Parker's Death in Paradise with a current total circulation of 4,893 compared to his Perish Twice
added in 2000 which has a current total circulation of 2270. And to compare presidents, David G.
McCullough's John Adams currently has been checked out 4,785 times. His last book on a president,
Truman (copyright 1992) has circulated a total of 1528 times.
Even though the circulation per copy is not as high, total circulations do seem to be impacted by having
larger quantities of copies available while titles are current and being advertised. Outcomes indicate that
more customers are able to get the books they want in a timely fashion. Thus, I do intend for us to continue
strategically and carefully selecting titles for saturation buying.
We have continued to purchase a wide range of books, not just fiction by any means. "Saturation buying" is
also being followed to purchase books on flags, baby names, resumes, weddings, getting a job, gardening in
the shade, etc. In previous years, we often ended up purchasing 100-200 copies of many titles, just not very
efficiently or customer focused. We purchased based on the 4-holds per copy ratio. So we might buy 40
copies; as holds grew, another 40 copies were purchased, etc. Not a way to surprise or delight customers, or
a good use of staff time. It was a reactive process rather than a proactive one. We have used the concept of
"saturation buying" to purchase children's and young adult materials for many years and will continue to do
so.
With reluctance, I have decided that we will not purchase adult or juvenile browsing paperbacks this year.
When I requested input about how to manage a reduced budget, this was the one recommendation nearly
everyone suggested. I am hoping we can restore some funding for these collections later in the year. Your
customers will notice this; please express our regret about the limited budget. We will continue to purchase
adult paperbacks to support the book group discussions in branches, since this is the primary adult
programming our budget can support.
Here are some other strategies that we will need to follow in order to stay within our budget. We will be
moving the number of copies of materials per holds to 6:1 instead of 4:1. The Periodicals and Standing Order
budgets have been reduced, as has the new adult and youth print allocated amounts. The spoken and music
budgets have also been reduced. Print and electronic resources have been reviewed, and cuts have been
made where there was unnecessary duplication. We will do both adult and youth replace, but on a more
limited level. We will also be critically reviewing patron suggestions for purchase, and will be purchasing a
more limited number. If our budget is not reduced an additional amount, we will restore some funding from
the reserved fund to expand the amounts in the categories that have been reduced.
My thanks to each person involved with the collections in some way. I recognize this will be a challenging
year for all of us, and ask for your patience as you work with customers. Please feel free to share your
thoughts with me. I deeply appreciate the input, and always consider your concerns as I work with the many
varied aspects of collection development for Multnomah County Library.
Materials Budget
Category
FY 02/03
Percentage of Budget
Periodicals
$265,000
4.7%
Adult
$1,748,484
31.2%
$110,000
2%
●
New - $1,157,484
●
Reference - $45,000
●
Replace - $0
●
OCF - $546,000
International Language
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Electronic Resources
$440,000
7.8%
RESERVED
$500,000
8.9%
Large Print
$70,000
1.2%
Homeless
$20,000
.3%
Jails
$20,000
.3%
Youth
$736,456
13.1%
Youth Grants
$69,000
1.2%
Standing Order
$520,000
9.3%
Spoken
$200,000
3.5%
Music
$300,000
5.3%
Video/DVD
$400,000
7.1%
Adult Outreach
$ 59,000
1.2%
Libros
$15,000
.3%
Grant/Gift/OCF Balances
$147,528
2.6%
TOTAL
$5,640,468
100%
●
New - $496,711
●
Replace - $80,745
●
YA - $55,000
●
OCF - $104,000