Keeping the small library afloat takes planning

One challenge I often hear from librarians…particularly those new to management… is discovering things “‘they’ didn’t teach us in library school.” For those who hold leadership positions in the 7,000+ small libraries in the country…where juggling multiple roles is the order of the day…that concern is amplified.

This week, I’ve been working on a manuscript, The Small Library Survival Guide: Creatively Doing More with Limited Resources, by Herb Landau, director of a tiny library in the heavily Amish community of Lancaster, Pa. After working in corporate America for some 30-years, Herb took a “retirement job” as the first full-time, certified director in the library’s 40-year history. Retirement, ha! The first year, when the library faced a 43% cut in state public library aid, battled a proposed 20% cut in county library aid and watched county voters reject a county tax referendum to provide only $24 per family each year to ensure public library survival, he realized he’s have to bring in the best of his corporate experience to keep the library afloat. In this book (look for it in the fall), he will bridge that gap between “the business skills you don’t always get in library school” with the on-the-ground job of daily librarianship. (In 2006, his library, Milanof-Schock Library, the was named the Best Small Library In America by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Library Journal.)

About 50% of his time, says Landau, is devoted to fund-raising. “When people ask what fund-raising tools we have tried, I answer, only half in jest, “everything except pay toilets and slot machines, so far,” he quips. Some of his innovative, if not unorthodox fund-raising tactics: providing a passport application service, working with an outside firm to recycle donated printer cartridges, cell phones and other computer parts for cash, offering an exam proctoring service. May sound like chump change, but the dollars can add up fast.

Of course, a library cannot live on Friends of the Library book sales alone. The book is full of funding ideas (as well as other “they-didn’t-teach-us-that-in-library-school ideas”…from surveying customers to strategic planning to marketing). Below is his advice on developing a fund-raising strategy:

As with all important library activities, fund raising should also have a structured strategic plan (see Chapter 4) to ensure it is done in an efficient and effective manner. As a minimum, you should establish annual fund raising objectives derived from your annual budget projections for needed income. It may prove desirable to develop a long-range fund raising plan and incorporate it into your strategic plan, linking fund raising objectives to the resource requirements and schedules for your various strategic objectives. As with any strategic plan, your fund raising plan should have clearly delineated goals, objectives, strategies and tactics as well as assignments of leadership and work responsibilities. It should present defined schedules, resources needed and expenditure budgets for fund raising tasks. Be prepared to invest both time and money in your library’s fund-raising efforts. If you need to hire paid consultants to advise and guide your fund-raising, then do it. My daddy’s advice that “you gotta spend some money to make some money” is most relevant here. Do not be afraid to consult with people who have fund raising experience and to co-opt them to serve on your volunteer fund-raising committees. I have found that people with both non-profit fund raising and industry marketing experience, particularly in direct sales, can give you much useful advice.