One of my duties is to prepare and supervise the budget for the library. Because I’m thinking about numbers and how much it costs to run the Library for a full year, I thought you might be interested in some of those numbers as well.

The library budget for July 1, 2012 through June 30, 2013, is $1,266,679 and a few odd cents. Like most businesses, the greatest lump sum of our budget goes for staff expenses. To cover things like salaries, health insurance, retirement, Social Security, medicare, unemployment insurance and other good things to keep the 22 staff members happy rings up to $770,000.

The utilities to keep the place running is another chunk of change. $73,865 pays for electricity, sewer, water, natural gas and trash disposal for the year. Another set of utilities includes our communications, information services, and local telephone costs. We spend about $18,000 each year on telephone costs. That cost has gone up recently because so many people have cell phone numbers that are not in our local calling area, and we have to pay long-distance fees to call those people about hold-items and overdue materials.

We pay another $25,000 to support the internet services at the Library. Not only does the staff need the internet to do our jobs, but we provide internet services to the 1,500 people who use our public internet workstations each month and another 200 people who come in to use our free Wi-Fi. Another $24,000 pays for our catalog and circulation system AND delivery of materials between Boulder City and the LVCCLD Libraries.

All of these numbers and I haven’t even started talking about materials expenses yet!  Books, DVDs, CDs and audio books all total about $92,000. Magazine subscriptions cost $10,500. Databases like Consumer Reports, Chilton Library and Downloadable Audio Books cost $7,000. This year, we are spending most of our $10,000 equipment budget to update ALL of our public internet workstations. We can’t forget about office supplies, janitorial supplies, programming expenses and building and grounds maintenance. The list goes on and on!

Visit the Library at 701 Adams Boulevard.