Book Budgets and Book Buying

FINALLY, I was able to sit down and do the book budgets. Most of you were mailed an Excel sheet with your budget so that you can keep track of it (MaryLou, I will give you yours in person, as I wasn't sure if you wanted it emailed to you).

PLEASE NOTE: When using the Excel sheet, please start your tallying on LINE 6, not line 5. All you need to do is enter the total of your invoice - no "-" (minus) sign necessary, and the grand total will automatically change. If you need help with this, please see me and I'll get you set-up.

The Budget
The budget was arrived at after looking at the available figures for last year's buying. This was not at all scientific, and I only had figures for 24 of the 32 thousand, but I did the best I could. Some budgets were increased, some decreased (slightly), and in the end, none of it is written in stone. I left a little in the budget to cover shortfalls in my reasoning and/or unexpected expenses, and we should also have some other money available if needed.

The YA budget got a big increase, as very little was spent in that area last year. Bobbie and I will be working this year to greatly increase the YA holdings as well as create a more YA-friendly physical space. DVDs - one of our biggest expenses - was decreased slightly, but I am hoping that the move to Amazon (and perhaps Alliance Entertainment) for a lot of our media buying will make-up for the decrease by lessening the amount per movie we were spending with Midwest Tape. Same goes for audiobooks, which I hope can be more "efficient" with Amazon and the addition of OverDrive.

Buyers-
Nonfiction (Adult) - Bobbie
Fiction (Adult) - MaryLou
YA (fiction and non-fiction) - Jessica
Children (fiction, non-fiction, and DVDs) - Tish
Media (DVDs, Audiobooks, and Music CDs) - MaryLou will keep the order list, and I will be doing the ordering. I am hoping to move this over to the new Reference person once they get settled.

Odering-
For now, we won't be doing acquisitions - but I hope to get back to that once we have a cataloger in place. Until then, you can use the Ingram and B&T accounts and order online (Ingram is in the process of setting us up - I will let you know when that is complete). The YA spine label issue has been addressed by both vendors.

This was a long post with a lot of info! After summer is over and we have the new staff people in place, I do think we should have a face-to-face meeting to talk about the ordering process as a whole - as well as a general staff meeting. Until then, please do not hesitate to see me with questions, concerns or ideas.

Thanks!