With Budgets Tight, Public Libraries Step Up Book Donation Programs

Partnerships include opportunity for donors to be first in line for the books

Lynn Blumenstein -- Library Journal, 08/31/2009

• Fairfax County tweaks established Amazon program
• Santa Cruz establishes "win-win" with local booksellers
• LSSI's 1stReads made more customer friendly

Facing budget challenges, public libraries are revisiting ways to enhance their collections through donation programs. They’re using tried-and-true methods, establishing new local partnerships, and tweaking existing programs.

Fairfax steps up Amazon program
Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL), VA, has been using Amazon’s Wish List, an established program that offers a customized page of wanted titles. Although FCPL launched the Wish List program in 2003, it has taken on more importance, as the library’s budget has been cut 15 percent for 2010. 

Once books are purchased by a donor, they are mailed directly to the library. The donor receives an acknowledgement that serves as a tax deduction. Since its inception, 1,168 books valued at $75,127 have been added to collection, Fairfax Library Foundation director Roberta Longworth told LJ.

A more aggressive campaign to promote the program will begin this fall via e-mail, the web site, bookmarks at branches, library newsletter articles, brochures, and more.

According to the Fairfax Library Foundation, by donating a title "you… help shorten the library’s waiting lists for yourself and your fellow library patrons." Not only that, through what Fairfax calls its First Loan Program, a donor can pick up the book at the library and be the first to read it.

Santa Cruz keeps it local
Santa Cruz Public Library (SCPL), facing the state’s "take back" of local property tax proceeds because of state budget problems, has come up with a program that would benefit local booksellers as well as the library.

"What was important to us was the double benefit of benefitting our local business community which is hurting during this recession," SCPL director Teresa Landers told LJ, "and supplementing our extremely inadequate materials budget." SCPL’s materials budget is expected to plummet to $380,000; two years ago it was $1 million, according to the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

Beginning in September, SCPL will introduce a new program in conjunction with local booksellers around the county. Customers can buy books from a SCPL-generated "wish list" and the stores will donate them to SCPL.

"We don't see this as a sustainable way for a library to acquire its materials," explained Landers, "but since we are facing this one time reduction (at least we hope it is) it seemed like a win-win project for us, the business community, and our patrons."

LSSI’s 1stReads revamped
Another program to give donors the first chance at a book is being revamped. Outsourcing company LSSI (Library Systems & Services LLC), which launched its 1stReads program in 2005, is relaunching the service at two systems it manages, Jackson-Madison County Library, TN, and Finney County Library, Garden City, KS.

1stReads "had limited response" LSSI’s Steve Coffman told LJ, because "it wasn’t marketed terribly effectively." The program required too many steps for both library and donor. Libraries had to choose the titles each month, usually limited to 30. Donors had to visit the library to pick up the books they bought and then return them to the library afterward. (Coffman described the pilot in a September 2006 article in Computers and Libraries.)

The revised program offers Baker & Taylor's (B&T) entire inventory for selection. The library’s 1stReads list can be "populated automatically with high-demand titles selected pre-pub by B&T," explained Coffman, who noted that this "eliminates much of the work of keeping the list current and still insures the library is getting titles it will need."

With 1stReads, the customer gets the book (at a 20 percent discount) shipped directly to his or her address (as opposed to the library), drops it by the library when finished, and picks up a coupon for a discount on the next donated purchase. 

LSSI will promote the program to library users and used book sales, as well as to groups like book clubs, schools, and colleges that buy a lot of books.