Budget Project for July 5th

Three Year Budget Proposal

Statement of Need

The Riverbend School has worked very hard to establish a library learning commons—a place where students and teachers can come to work together in small groups, to ask important questions, search for information both in books as well as on the Internet and to formulate new answers through new mediums. To achieve this end, the library needs new tables and chairs that are more conducive to working in small groups. To enhance both the educational and technological growth of our students so they will become productive, life-long learners, to save money and keep the materials up to date and to provide more space for recreational reading and the small work groups, we propose purchasing online encyclopedias. And finally, to provide a well-rounded collection and to increase our circulation, we need to purchase graphic novels.

Goals and Objectives

            The first objective is to provide a more comfortable learning and recreational environment in the library learning commons to increase collaborative learning and recreational readership by 10%.  The second objective is to purchase online encyclopedia subscriptions. By purchasing online encyclopedias that are updated yearly rather than purchasing paper encyclopedias yearly, the materials are more accurate and up to date; the students learn to use the computer to research subjects and the school saves money. An entire set of the Encyclopedia Britannica costs $1175.50 after the educational discount, but the Britannica Learning Bundle (Britannica Online for Kids and Britannica MathSmarts) costs only $99.59 a year or for just the Britannica Online for Kids, it’s $69.95 a year. The World Book Encyclopedia print set is $1044.00 and the online version is only $49.95. The last objective is to increase recreational reading and increase circulation by 10% through the purchase of graphic novels.

Plan of Action

The first plan of action is to get rid of the old library tables and bring in soft chairs and smaller round tables and group them into small groups throughout the library. We will then set up an online calendar and have the teachers sign up to use the library for some of their class projects.  The second plan is to discard the old print encyclopedia and purchase online encyclopedia subscriptions. The second phase of this plan is to make sure that all students know or learn how to access the Web site and to make sure they know how to use it appropriately. The third plan is to purchase over the course of the three years, approximately one hundred graphic novel titles. We will prominently display some of the new graphic novels and create signage to prompt the new titles and to encourage more recreational reading.

Planning for Evaluation

We will track the classes that use the library for their classroom small group projects and track their learning progress over the course of the year as well as track the circulation number. The cost of the online encyclopedia subscriptions can be compared to the yearly purchase of print encyclopedias and the savings over a three year period calculated. The library will track the circulation of the graphic novels over the course of the three years to see of the objective was met.

Budget Considerations

TLS the Library Store             Single Side Upholstered Booth          $409.95           2         

TLS the Library Store             Modular Lounge Seating*                  $530.95           24       

Hertz Furniture Systems         Round Cafeteria Table                                    $149.00           6

Demco                                     Fatboy Soft Seating                            $289.99           4

*I found chairs that I liked better from a manufacturer called Agati but there were no prices listed.

Britannica Online Bundle       E.B. for Kids/MathSmarts                  $99.95 a year   1

World Book Encyclopedia     Yearly Online Subscription                 $49.95 a year   1

100 Graphic Novels**                        Purchase approx. 33 a year                 $7-19.95          33

**Need to research titles and reviews first before I can give you a full list of titles and prices. I took the highest price and multiplied it by 33 to reach the top amount that would be spent.

Approximate Total Cost over 3 Years:  $16,424.91

That works out to approximately $5,474.97 per year. If you factor in the cost of purchasing printed encyclopedias each year, the savings with online encyclopedia saves the school $2,069.50 a year.