Worth Our Weight
An Annual Report On How your Tax Dollars
Support the Services You have Come to Trust and Love
Your Library
The Heartbeat of the Community
Cost Benefit Analysis for MCCPL
October 2006 through September 2007
Access to information is a priority goal of service of your public library. That goal is achieved through the circulation of library material in varying formats.
Between 2006 and 2007 your public library’s major funding was provided by the City of Montgomery and the Montgomery County Commission. Additional funding is provided by the State of Alabama through the Alabama Public Library Service (APLS) as state aid support. APLS also administers the Library Service & Technology Act (LSTA), a federally funded program of competitive grant awards made annually. Additional program support was provided by the Central Alabama Community Foundation, Friends of the Montgomery Library, Pike Road Friends of the Library, Ramer Friends of the Library, Pintlala Friends of the Library, Pine Level Friends of the Library, and citizens who truly believe in access to information for all people.
Circulation
Books ~ MCCPL circulated 457,640 printed items at a value of $25 per item. That circulation of printed items is valued at $11,441,000 savings to the citizens of Montgomery County if you had to go out and purchase each of those items.
Books on Tape ~ 28,502 books on tape were borrowed during this period. If you , our users, had to pay $3.00 per use, it would cost you $142,510. However because you are a citizen in Montgomery County, you saved the same amount.
Microfilm ~ 135 microfilm were used during this period at a value of $23.00 per use. The savings to those users is $257,300.
Microfiche ~ 3 microfiche were used during this period at a value of $23.00 per use. The savings to those users is $69.00.
CD/DVD/VIDEO/DVS ~ 20,573 items were borrowed which fell into the listed categories at a value of $5.00 per use. Those loans equate to $102,865 savings to the citizens of Montgomery County.
KITS ~ Kits is a category which might include a book and a tape, or a cd and a book. During this period the library loaned 745 kits at a value of $5.00 per kit. Our users saved $3,725 by borrowing these kits from the library.
Services
Services include the following:
Computer use
The library’s computers were utilized by 130,673 citizens at a value of $10 per use. The savings to those citizens is $1,306,730.
Computer Lab Use
The computer lab provided 25,730 Montgomery citizens the opportunity to use a computer to access information at a value of $10.00 per use. The savings to those citizens is $257,300.
Reference Questions ~ So many questions are asked by our citizens. Each time a question is asked, the Reference Librarian logs each new question answered. 56,627 questions were asked of your Librarians. If you had to pay for each question answered, we would value our answer at $5.00 per answer. The value of that service would be $283,135 savings to you, our patrons.
Reference Assistance ~ How we assist our patrons in finding answers to their questions does not take as much time as finding the answers ourselves, thus 86,735 times that your Librarian assisted you in finding your own answers saved you $173.470 at a cost of $2.00 per assistance.
Computer Classes ~ We value each time we are given to narrow the digital divide through teaching someone how to use the software provided by the public library. If you, the user, had to pay for the computer classes you would be charged on average $25.00 per class. Your public library presented 421 classes over the twelve months of this analysis. Your savings are valued at $10,525.
Dial-a-Story ~ Reading, Listening and Hearing a story read or told to a child helps to develop the child’s cognitive skills. We encourage all of our young people to call our Dial-A-Story numbers 24-7 and hear a story. 1,819 young people dialed the number at a value of $3.00 per call; that’s a savings of $5,457.
Telephone Renewal ~ In this time of high fuel costs, closed highways, etc. being able to call in and renew a book is essential to friendly library service. 32,470 library users called in to renew their books at a value of $1.00 per call yielding a savings of $32,470.
Programs ~ 1,493 programs were presented during this period, a value of $50.00 per program. The programs saved you, our users, $74,650.
Attendance ~ If you had to pay a fee to attend those 1,493 programs with an attendance of 35,982 at a value of $9.00 per person, we would have made $323,838. However we saved , you, our users, money by offering free programs which help improve the
quality of your life.
Web Visits ~ The second most visible image of the Montgomery City-County Public Library is its web page. It is seen and used by people all over the world. It provides a
glimpse of the value of the public library to the Montgomery Community. 379,716 users visited the library’s web site. The value of those visits is $1.00 per visit. The savings to the citizens of Montgomery is $379,716.
Patron Assistance ~ General help was provided to 52,637 users at a value of $2.00 per use. The value of the savings to our users is $105,274.
Media Viewings ~ 45,374 viewed items from the Media Department at an average value of $5.00 per viewing. The savings to our viewers is $226,870.
Interlibrary Loans ~The Library borrowed 743 books through interlibrary loan for its users. The value of each individual loan is $30.00, which is a saving value of $22,290
The total Savings Value to our citizens is $14,892,664. Money not spent by our users because you have decided that a public library is the place to borrow material instead of buying it.
Conclusions
For every dollar we spent, we returned a value of $3.47. From the $4,288,440 budgeted, the library returned a value of $14,892,664. A savings to the citizens of the City of Montgomery and Montgomery County of $10,604,224 for the period of October 2006 – September 2007
Worth Their Weight is a model utilized by public libraries in the United States to compare actual budget to services offered. It is a discipline which is still in development stages. The values of the services is pulled from documented sources, i.e. the actual average cost of a new book added to the library’s collection. Services, i.e. computer use, computer lab use, etc. is based on national figures provided by SW Ohio CBA in Worth Their Weight. The Americans for Libraries Council’s publication “Worth Their Weight” was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
