SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
EXPLORE +
  • About infoDOCKET
  • Academic Libraries on LJ
  • Research on LJ
  • News on LJ
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Libraries
    • Academic Libraries
    • Government Libraries
    • National Libraries
    • Public Libraries
  • Companies (Publishers/Vendors)
    • EBSCO
    • Elsevier
    • Ex Libris
    • Frontiers
    • Gale
    • PLOS
    • Scholastic
  • New Resources
    • Dashboards
    • Data Files
    • Digital Collections
    • Digital Preservation
    • Interactive Tools
    • Maps
    • Other
    • Podcasts
    • Productivity
  • New Research
    • Conference Presentations
    • Journal Articles
    • Lecture
    • New Issue
    • Reports
  • Topics
    • Archives & Special Collections
    • Associations & Organizations
    • Awards
    • Funding
    • Interviews
    • Jobs
    • Management & Leadership
    • News
    • Patrons & Users
    • Preservation
    • Profiles
    • Publishing
    • Roundup
    • Scholarly Communications
      • Open Access

November 28, 2012 by Gary Price

Kansas: Longer Waits, Less Money for New Books at Wichita Library

November 28, 2012 by Gary Price

From The Wichita Eagle:

In recent years, the Wichita Public Library’s per-person spending on library materials has been less than half of the amount in Oklahoma City and Topeka and half of the amount spent in Lawrence. Less spending translates to fewer materials and longer wait times, sometimes several weeks longer.
In those other cities’ libraries, for every popular new book copy, about three people are waiting to get it. In Wichita, there are likely to be about seven people waiting, where it used to be about five, said Cynthia Berner Harris, the city’s director of libraries. When she came to work for the library in 1984, it was three people waiting per copy.
“We ask people to bear with us and know that we will get copies to them as fast as we can,” she said.
[Clip]
In 2008 and 2009, the Wichita library received $763,920 in city funding each year for its materials budget. That dropped to $687,530 in 2010 and stayed at that level in 2011 and this year. It will remain the same next year.
As for state funding, the library received $242,873 for all expenses, not only materials, from a state grant in 2008. By 2012, state aid had fallen to $162,844.
[Clip]
The good news is the Wichita library has managed to keep spending on materials at a consistent percentage of total library spending, Berner Harris said.
“I think this data tells us that although our overall funding available for materials purchases at our library is less than many of our peers, we have done a much better job than most (in recent years) of minimizing the amount of cuts to our materials budget,” she said in an e-mail.

Read the Complete Article

Filed under: Data Files, Funding, Libraries, News

SHARE:

About Gary Price

Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com. Gary is also the co-founder of infoDJ an innovation research consultancy supporting corporate product and business model teams with just-in-time fact and insight finding.

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

Job Zone

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Infodocket Posts

Journal Article: "Global Trends in Digital Preservation: Outsourcing Versus In-House Practices"

The article linked below was recently published by the Journal of Librarianship and Information Science (JOLIS). Title Global Trends in Digital Preservation: Outsourcing Versus In-House Practices Authors Rafiq AhmadBacha Khan ...

Not Real News: An Associated Press Roundup of Untrue Stories Shared Widely on Social Media This Week

From the Associated Press: A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were ...

Report: Lawsuit Challenges Arkansas Law Allowing Librarians to Be Criminally Charged Over ‘Harmful’ Materials; Freedom to Read Foundation...

From the Arkansas Times A group of public libraries and supporters filed a federal lawsuit Friday to challenge a new state law that aims to censor what books children can get to ...

Yale Launches LUX, A Powerful New Search Tool For Cross-Collection Exploration

From the Yale Library: LUX: Collection Discovery—a new cross-collection search tool—provides users worldwide with online access to more than 17 million items within Yale University’s museums, libraries, and archives. “The ...

Five New or Recently Updated Reports From the Congressional Research Service (CRS)

A small selection of new or recently updated reports from the Congressional Research Service. Is That Climate Change? The Science of Extreme Event Attribution Juneteenth: Fact Sheet Montana’s TikTok Ban ...

Gavin Newsom Warns California Schools That Ban Books Will Answer to the Attorney General

From The Sacramento Bee: Gov. Gavin Newsom sent a stern message Thursday to school leaders across California — any attempt to ban books from classrooms or libraries may require them ...

Joint Statement: Massachusetts Library Organizations Stand with Librarians Against Censorship and Intolerance

Here’s the Full Text of a Statement From: The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) The Massachusetts Library Association (MLA) The Massachusetts Library System (MLS) The Massachusetts School Library Association ...

Library and Archives Canada Announces 1931 Census of Canada is Now Available Online

From a Library and Archives Canada Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is proud and excited to offer access to the digitized 1931 Census of Canada, 92 years after it was conducted. ...

Op/Ed: In Washington State, "State, Local Libraries Rebuilding Lives After Prison"

From an Everett Herald Commentary by Washington Sec. of State, Steve Hobbs and Sara Jones, Washington State Librarian: In 2016, Gov. Jay Inslee prompted state and local agencies to collaborate ...

Coordinating Research Data Services: Key Barriers and Questions; The DAISY Consortium Publishes 2022 Annual Report; and More Headlines

COAR Community Consultation on Managing Non-English And Multilingual Content In Repositories (via COAR) Coordinating Research Data Services: Key Barriers and Questions (via Ithaka S+R) The DAISY Consortium Publishes 2022 Annual ...

Association of American Publishers (AAP) Reports Publishing Revenues Totaled $28.10 Billion for 2022, Revenues Down 2.6% on Year-Over-Year...

Here’s the Full Text of an AAP StatShot Report Posted Today: The Association of American Publishers (AAP) today released the StatShot Annual report covering the calendar year 2022, estimating that ...

"National Library of Ireland’s New Director Leads Her First Monthly Tour of Its Historic Dublin Home"

From The Irish Times: There’s a satisfying symmetry to the way Audrey Whitty appears to have stepped from the National Museum of Ireland, where she was deputy director, to the identical-looking ...

ADVERTISEMENT

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER

Tweets by infoDOCKET

ADVERTISEMENT

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

Primary Sidebar

  • News
  • Reviews+
  • Technology
  • Programs+
  • Design
  • Leadership
  • People
  • COVID-19
  • Advocacy
  • Opinion
  • INFOdocket
  • Job Zone

Reviews+

  • Booklists
  • Prepub Alert
  • Book Pulse
  • Media
  • Readers' Advisory
  • Self-Published Books
  • Review Submissions
  • Review for LJ

Awards

  • Library of the Year
  • Librarian of the Year
  • Movers & Shakers 2022
  • Paralibrarian of the Year
  • Best Small Library
  • Marketer of the Year
  • All Awards Guidelines
  • Community Impact Prize

Resources

  • LJ Index/Star Libraries
  • Research
  • White Papers / Case Studies

Events & PD

  • Online Courses
  • In-Person Events
  • Virtual Events
  • Webcasts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Media Inquiries
  • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Submit Features/News
  • Data Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Terms of Sale
  • FAQs
  • Careers at MSI


© 2023 Library Journal. All rights reserved.


© 2022 Library Journal. All rights reserved.