Vision Building: Budget Matters

Everything librarians do is a form of advocacy, including the strategies we use when purchasing books. Talking about budget matters is an important way you can build understanding with your principles. Many principals, business managers, APs and campus managers don’t understand the unique budgeting and ordering processes for libraries. Because budgetary matters are so essential to school functioning, speaking this language with your administrators will go a long way toward showing the value--both academic and fiscal--of the library program.

Organization and consistency in your ordering practices will go a long way toward earning building leaders support, so take the time to put these processes in place.

To manage your library budget, always remember:

• YOUR CAMPUS HAS ONE LIBRARY
• YOUR LIBRARY DRAWS FROM MULTIPLE SCHOOL BUDGETS

Each of the schools on your campus has funds coded 338 for library resources and materials. Depending on the Basic Education Data System (BEDS) data from the prior school year, your school will have been allocated $6.25 per pupil to spend on the library. (Note determining the total in advance can be challenging for new schools, who don’t yet have data to determine their funding. Nonetheless there will be some money available in the school’s budget for library purchasing.) For more information on how to access your school’s budget, or any budget within the Department of Education, visit the Budget page of the NYC School Librarian Guidebook.

Budget Logistics

You have five budgets but one library: how do you juggle your needs with these numbers!? And how do you explain this unique situation to vendors?

Budget Data Management

It can be helpful to use a Google spreadsheet to keep track of your funds from each school and how you spend them. This spreadsheet template [linked in this section’s resources] is an example of a way to keep track of which schools are covering what resources. In addition to helping you stay organized, this document will help principals, your purchasing officer, and the campus manager see a breakdown of contributions to the library at a glance.

Moving Funds to and From the Library: When is it OK?

According to NY State purchasing guidelines, some monies in the school budget can be moved from one allocation category to another. Funds budgeted for textbooks, hardware, and software can be moved into the library, among other codes. So, if a school on your campus has extra hardware money at the end of the year, those funds can be transferred to the library. If you need additional funding, make your principals aware of this!

Conversely, library funds CANNOT be moved into the textbook, hardware, or software categories. Be aware that you may need to advocate for school software money to cover automation renewal. You may also need to advocate to replace your hardware at the same rate it is replaced in other spaces in campus’s classrooms. Other supplies like toner, printer paper, etc. should also be ordered accordingly. Make sure your hardware needs are being discussed in campus-wide meetings as well as meetings local to schools.

BEST PRACTICE: The library is the largest classroom on campus. This is a great point to bring up in conversations about replacing hardware and software on campus with your schools.

Planning and Presenting Your Budget: Know Before You Go!

Because you will be managing budgets that are spread across multiple schools, you will necessarily present your plans to multiple audiences. Clearly demonstrating how your library’s vision supports each school’s vision will help principals and other colleagues more easily understand your budget plans. Here are some general tips to help you navigate budgeting, purchasing plans, and sharing those plans with others.

Learn your campus cultures! Consider student needs and teacher needs; if print reference materials aren’t used because databases cover these topics and are more accessible to students in the building, note that as you develop your collection.

Know your schools AND their districts. Schools from the same campus can be in different districts and/or charter management organizations! The budget year varies across districts, so know what districts your schools are in and make sure you spend their budgets before their budget year ends. This can also help you get reallocated funds (see below).

Get reallocated funds! At the end of their budget cycles, try to get leftover funds reallocated to the library! You have a stronger case to receive these funds if you've already spent your money!

Purchase with consistency. Using the same budget line to purchase the same things over the years will help schools understand the library’s function and value. Building consistency and purchasing according to their priorities will help schools get used to the library as part of their budgetary landscape and realize its value.

In all cases, spend your money! Before you experience budget reallocation in your schools, or see library moneys become reappropriated, make sure you spend your money in a timely manner.

Encourage cross-campus dialogue. Encourage principals to talk about where they have room in their budgets to support the library. On one campus, one principal took on the financial responsibility for all library supplies. The other principals in the building take on other shared financial responsibilities, and the group makes sure everyone is paying equally into these shared spaces.

Prioritize collaboration! If teachers are great collaborators, purchase their requests to strengthen the bond. This can open the door to collaborative grants and other opportunities that serve the entire school. In addition to listening to your teachers, also think about how that purchase meets other needs on the campus. A very niche request may be better fulfilled at the public library or use MyLibrary NYC

Less is more. Placing fewer, more targeted orders will streamline your process. It also means fewer times you will have to explain the concept of a campus library to vendors.

Less is still more. Using fewer vendors will also streamline your process

Know that it’s a process. It takes time to navigate all the different personalities and cultures of multiple schools on a campus. It also takes time to figure out what’s best for you and the library. This process of creating best practices takes time.

Never stop shopping! (Advice you’ll probably only find in this guide!!) Always have a list going for the next order, even at the end of the school year. Building a great collection is a process.

Buying Books: Working With Book Vendors

Your collection is meant to serve all the schools on your campus. As with any school library, let the schools’ curricula, missions, and visions drive your collection development. Talk to teachers, principals, and especially to students about what resources they need and want. Great suggestions for collection development best practices are available in the Selection page of the NYC School Librarian Guidebook. As noted in the Guidebook, the collection development plan has five steps:

1. Create a mission statement for your library.
2. Collect and analyze data about your students.
3. Align to the standards.
4. Collaborate with others.
5. Connect and share.

Also, before ordering any books, review the Ordering page of the Guidebook. The guidelines in this handbook help to apply purchasing rules and guidelines in the campus library context.

For book purchasing, remember

• Your library has one campus name and one set of processing specs
• All incoming books should be stamped with the campus name and cataloged in one common catalog
• Each vendor has its own barcode range

Explaining The Campus

Since campus schools are unique to NYC, vendors have little familiarity with them. It’s worthwhile to explain the campus to any new vendor, as all NYC book vendors need to have some understanding of the campus. You may need to explain this each time you speak to a vendor, since you can’t assume that each time you work with a vendor you will speak to the same representative.

When book vendors understand the campus, it helps them help you. One example that your representative at a vendor can link each secondary account to your master account so they have the same barcodes and processing specs.

Sample Script

I work at a campus school. That means, I have X number of schools in my building, but my library, the NAME OF YOUR LIBRARY, serves them all. So I purchase from X different budgets but all my books are cataloged for the same library with the same processing specs.

Creating Accounts

For Large Book Vendors (Follett, Mackin):

REMEMBER: one main library, multiple school accounts.

Create a MASTER ACCOUNT. Ideally, your Master Account is correlated with budget of the school on whose table of organization you appear and to whom you report for time and attendance. This information is managed in Galaxy, which is the database used to manage school budgets and purchasing. Thus, librarians refer to their Master Account school as their “Galaxy School.”

• The MASTER ACCOUNT will be where you keep your master collection list.
• This account must contain the SCHOOL NAME because when you purchase items using this account, that school will need to see their own name represented in the invoices to create a purchase order.
• Create the processing specs for your library in this account.
• Ask your vendor representative to help you link each secondary account to your main account for barcodes and processing specs
• When you are ready to purchase, you can move parts of your main list to the secondary accounts of your other schools in order to use those funds to buy those books.

Create SECONDARY ACCOUNTS for each of your other schools.

• For these accounts, use the NAME OF THE SCHOOL ONLY in the username.
• Do not create unique book lists in these accounts.
• Use the same processing specs from the main account in these secondary accounts; make sure your vendor representative helps you do this.

For Smaller Book Vendors:

With smaller vendors, with whom you may only use one school budget to make purchases, it’s still important that they know you are a campus school. The name on your processing specs (THE CAMPUS) may differ from the name on your account (ONE SCHOOL), which can be confusing for those who do not understand the NYC campus library.

BEST PRACTICE: Some small vendors may appreciate you sharing your processing specs from a larger vendor like Follett to ensure consistency (although each vendor will have a unique barcode range).

Placing Book Orders

This is a detailed explanation of purchasing books for a campus library. See the Book Purchasing Checklist [linked in the resources for this section] for a one-page, step-by-step guide to book purchasing!

STEP 1: Select Books To Purchase

On the Mackin or Follett site, share the items you wish to purchase from your Master Account with the Secondary accounts that you wish to use to make purchases.

Many librarians print out the FAMIS instructions provided by vendors (e.g. Follett) and fill in the information relevant to their purchase order and school. They share this document with their staff in charge of purchasing (in most schools, this is the business manager).

STEP 2: Contact A Purchasing Office (one of your schools)

Email your purchasing office. Include in this email:

• the school name & address via your school account (on Mackin/Follett) whose budget you are spending. Remember, the purchasing office can only create a purchase order for their own school, so your order cannot be under the campus name.
• your book list (i.e., Titlewave) or the invoice that has the list of whatever it is being ordered
  • this may need to be printed out, depending on your vendor. Titlewave, for example, does not allow you to download a PDF of your list at this time, so it must be printed for your purchasing office, or printed and scanned.
  • indicate in the “ship to” address that this order should go to the library. Include your name and the name of the library to ensure its delivery to the space.

This will begin the process of getting a purchase order number that you will need to place an order with your vendor.

STEP 3: Contact Vendor to Place Order

• For most vendors, (i.e., Follett, Mackin), every account has its own customer number, even if all those accounts are using the same processing specs.
• When you purchase or send an email related to a purchase, you need to use the number from the account that you will use to make the purchase.

When you receive the purchase order number: Via fax, share the purchase order number with the vendor. Do not assume the purchasing person will do this. If this number is not included with your order, the process can be extremely delayed. Vendors do not start working on orders unless they have a purchase order number

Send an email to your representative at the vendor.

This email should include:

• Subject line:
  • “[your customer number]”, “[your purchase order number]”, and “PLEASE PLACE ORDER”
• Body of Email
  • Purchase Order Number
  • Your Customer Number
  • Your Order
• Attached to email:
  • A picture of the book list from the account placing the order
    • Share a screenshot, scan, or photo of the book list from the account that you ordered from with your rep.
    • While the vendor’s online system will eventually route a copy to your rep, to ensure that they have it easily at hand.

DOUBLE CHECK that your order will be shipped to the LIBRARY to ensure you receive your books, and they don’t get lost in the many packages your purchasing offices receive!

WHEN YOU RECEIVE: Save packing slips! Save packing slips and check in each book to ensure your order is complete. The packing slips go back to you purchasing officer/person.

For Experienced Campus Librarians

The New York City School Library System recommends that new campus librarians focus primarily on your book purchasing.

However, once you have been on campus for some time, you may gain access to funding sources outside the 338 funds. For example, software money from a school’s budget excess might be transferred to the library or grant funds might be earned. If you have been asked to spend other funds, consult your campus purchasing officer for guidance.

Also consult the purchasing guides available on the NYC School LIbrarian Guidebook for information and regulations about purchasing materials beyond library books.

Resources and links

• Budget, NYC School Librarian Guidebook
• Simple Campus Library Budget Spreadsheet Template
• Selection, NYC School Librarian Guidebook
• Ordering, NYC School Librarian Guidebook
• Book Purchasing Checklist
• Purchasing, NYC School Librarian Guidebook