Readings Journal 1/31

 

Bottoming Out by Michael Kelley

This article discusses the Library Journal’s annual budget survey for 2010.  The article mentions implications budget cuts have had on various libraries and the hope for an increased budget in 2011.

I found this article to be very interesting and informational.  I especially enjoyed the graphs and tables that were present throughout the article.  The graphs and tables did a great job of putting the impact of budget cuts in easy to understand terms.  The thing that surprised me the most in this article is that different areas of the country have very different views on how important libraries are.  I also found it interesting that the article discussed a few ways to help ensure that your budget doesn’t get cut.  These included staying relevant to the community and advocating for your library, both of which we have discussed in class as being very important.  This article made me very curious to see if the 2011 budgets did increase overall as was predicted in this article.

Vote of Confidence by Beth Dempsey

This article discusses referenda pertaining to voters entrusting their tax dollars to libraries.  The article delves into ways libraries can receive more votes.

I really enjoyed this article.  I thought it talked about many interesting issues such as the survey showing that people trust librarians over many other organizations or individuals.  However, I think that the most important thing this article mentions is the importance of marketing your library.  This is an issue that has come to the forefront recently and been discussed in many articles such as “Reinventing Libraries for the Next Generation of Library Users” by La Loria Konata (2009).  In that article, Konata discusses the increased need for advocating the relevancy of libraries in order to compete in the information environment of the world today.  In a sense, this is what Dempsey is talking about in her article.  Dempsey explains the importance of advocating your library to the community so they understand the importance of a library and so when a referendum about the library comes up, voters will vote for the library. 

Konata, L. L. (2009). Reinventing libraries for the next generation of library users.

Georgia Library Quarterly, 46(4), 17-20.

Performing Triage of Budgets in the R*E*D* by Thomas J. Hennen Jr.

This article talks about the many public libraries that are facing budget cuts.  The article explains five tools libraries can use to get out of the red.

Although this article covers a pretty depressing topic, libraries having to close or take other drastic measures because of budget cuts, it made me feel good.  Multiple times the article mentions how pressure from the public restored budget cuts, or how the public’s support of libraries has kept libraries alive during the worst times.  I always enjoy hearing how the public loves libraries so I enjoyed that section of the article.  On the other hand, I found the tools that this article mentions a little difficult to follow.  Many of them seemed a little far-fetched such as the E-commerce initiative.  However, this might be because I didn’t really understand what the author meant.  I think these tools could have been explained much better so that everybody could understand.