There are three libraries in Chouteau County: Geraldine, Big Sandy, and Fort Benton. Emily Wicks is the Director of all three. Emily Wicks said, "As far as libraries in Montana: we have 56 counties, and there's like 55 different ways libraries are run in Montana. Ours is an example of a county library. The county is responsible for the funding and the governance. There are some city libraries. There are some city/county libraries. There are also library districts."
Wicks puts in the initial budget numbers together with the base. "Since I have started, I have based it on previous spending. I present that to the library board, and then the library board decides if they will approve what I have submitted or if they may ask for changes. When they approve, it is sent to the commissioners, and then the commissioners look at it and either say, 'Yes, we can do that, or no, it does not look like that something we can fund.'"
The structure of the Chouteau County Library works like this: The commissioners are elected, and the library board members are appointed by the commissioner. The Chouteau County Library Board is a policy and budgetary board, which is different from a management board. The board hires a director to oversee the library's operations.
Wicks said, "So since I've been hired at the end of each fiscal year, we have come in at about 92% of the budget. I have never gone over budget. And from the last fiscal year to the year, we're in. I was able to look through past budgets and spending, asked for the same amount of money that we had the year before, and requested pay increases for all library staff, and kept our bottom line the same. I am still well within our budget."
"We do have a library foundation, that is a nonprofit foundation, so they don't receive any governmental money. That board has had training. Ashley Kent from MSU Extension came and did a foundation board training with members of our Golden Age board, plus members of a few different, I think, Lions Club had representatives, and a couple of churches came to that training. One of the biggest differences between the Chouteau County Library Board of Trustees and the Chouteau County Library Foundation is that the trustees of the board are beholden to all the public meeting laws, all the Montana Code because it's all governmental money, and the foundation is not beholden to any of those laws. The foundation doesn't have any say in policies or book acquisitions.
If people want to donate money to the library system, it doesn't go into the general county fund. If you donate money to the Library Foundation, that money will stay in the foundation. Some monies are donated specifically for a certain purpose or, for a specific branch. "Just this last week, someone passed away, and the donation said, please use this as you best see fit, versus maybe we get a donation that says, this patron really loved to read romance novels, so please buy romance."
"So, the annual budget is allocated, and the Big Sandy book-buying budget is $8,000. To put that into perspective, to the best of my knowledge, like the medical library with Logan Health up in Kalispell, their book buying (budget)for the year is $2,000. And the Dillon Public Library, the last time I heard, was $6,000, so for a town the size of Big Sandy, $8,000 is nice. We can get books from Barnes and Noble and different library-
specific stores that give us a discount. We also have a contract with a business called McNaughton. It's kind of a lease program; we pay a set amount, but then we request books through that, and then those books are free under that lease umbrella. So we get a number of books that way, and then through the different library vendors, where we get a certain amount off the standard price. Also, at Barnes and Noble, we get 50% off once a year."
It's like when you go to a thrift store to buy something for your house; if you are constantly bringing things into your home, you have to get rid of something at some point. "There was some concern about the number (of books--700) that we were able to remove that day, and that was definitely not the plan, but we were just able to go through it quickly. There was not anything that came out of the Montana room at all. And then we didn't get to the young adult section either.
Concerning the letter to the editor in this weeks paper: "The idea has been mentioned a couple of times in the last few years, but to my knowledge, I am talking to Rich Jesperson (a member of the Chouteau Couty Library Foundation) about it. He was at a city council meeting and the city council said they weren't interested. And if your city council is not interested, it won't happen."
