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Academic Library System

Notes capital expenditures and expenditures of federal funds. Some counties provide higher levels
of support, or may have additional agreements to reimburse for cross-municipal.
Other county library funding considerations:
• Municipalities can exempt themselves from the county library tax if they tax themselves
for library service at a higher tax rate than the county.
• To retain system membership, counties must also maintain their total public library
funding at a level at least equal to the average funding provided for the previous three
years (MOE).
• State funds: While Wisconsin does not directly fund public libraries with State funds,
library systems are operated with funds appropriated by the State, based on the library’s
system membership, and your library system may provide grants or project funds to
member libraries.
Federal funds: The Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) program supplies seed money
for projects that improve library services. The Wisconsin LSTA program is administered by
the Division for Libraries, Technology, and Community Learning in the Department of Public
Instruction. Libraries can apply for grants in specific competitive categories. Other non-competitive
categories are available to library systems, which may be distributed to member libraries.

11.1.3 Donations and Grants

Grants and gifts can be an excellent source of supplementary funds for special projects. In
addition, community citizens are often willing to make significant donations to cover part or
all of the costs of a new or remodeled library building.
Grants or donations should never be used to justify reducing or replacing the community’s
commitment to public funding. By doing so, you risk disenfranchising your benefactors-donors
may stop giving, volunteers may disappear, and granting organizations may cease awarding
grants to your library if they see that their efforts are resulting in reduced public funding for
the library instead of improved service.

11.1.4 Desirable Budget Characteristics

There are four practical characteristics that your budget document should include.
1. Clarity: The budget presentation should be clear enough so every board member,
every employee, and every municipal governing body member can understand
what is being represented.

2. Accuracy: Budget documentation must support the validity of budget figures, and
figures must be transcribed and reported carefully, without variation from the
documentation.
3. Consistency: Budget presentations should retain the same format from period to
period so that comparisons can be easily made. All budgets are comparative devices,
used to show how what is being done now compares with what happened in the
past and what is projected to happen in the future.
4. Comprehensiveness: Budget reports should include as complete a picture of fiscal
activities as is possible. The only way to know the true cost of the library operation
is to be certain that all revenue and expenditure categories are included within the
budget.

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