White Paper

Funding Our Priorities: Comparisons of Public Library Funding and Services with Other Sectors in Post-COVID America

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Abstract

 

Yet,libraries are often put in the position of justifying investment in them,despite providing a wide range of community services in addition to the usuallibrary services and receiving far less funding compared to many other publicsector areas. Coming through the pandemic, and with unprecedented support forstate and municipal budgets provided in the CARES Act and AmericanRescue Plan,governments now have surpluses for the first time since the 1990s. But whatwill happen to municipal and state budgets if or when there is a return toeconomic austerity? How can libraries better demonstrate their value toobtain additional funding from that surplus, especially if decision-makers facetough questions about local spending allocations?

 

Inthis report, we attempt to tackle these questions by 1) comparing librarybudgets to budgets of other public services, especially policing; 2) discussingnational trends in library resource allocation; and 3) discussing emerging,non-traditional library services and their budgets.

 

Policymakerscontinually debate about the priorities of states and municipalities to fundpublic libraries, education, and the social safety net relative to publicsafety, including police and sheriff services. This report presents apoint-in-time, multi-state snapshot of public library expenditures, staffing,and revenue data and compares that snapshot with other local governmentagencies. We compare state and local government investment in public librariesto other local services in fiscal years (FY) 2018 and 2019. We chose to examinethese pre-COVID years because they paint a picture of municipal funding beforethe pandemic and without the significant infusion of federal funding frompandemic relief and recovery programs. Data describing these years ischaracteristic of an economy similar to the past 10–15 years, with lowinflation rates. 

Keywords: funding; public libraries

How to Cite:

Million, A. & Bossaller, J., (2023) “Funding Our Priorities: Comparisons of Public Library Funding and Services with Other Sectors in Post-COVID America”, The Political Librarian 6(2), 77-94. doi: https://doi.org/10.7936/pollib.8824