Managing Finance from Budget proposal to Library resources procurements
There is always a struggle balancing the library budget and the desire to procure materials for the library. To overcome this challenge, one of our liferarian members, Mr Anil Mane, conducted a session. With his vast experience in well-known institutions in education and other corporate houses, he shared his expertise and best practices.
He focused on the library being the essence of the school, and this includes community, resources and services. He explained how these are connected. School library consists of essential components, i.e. need, resources, services, publishers & vendors. These components are inter-related to each other. Due to the librarian’s expertise in recognizing the gaps within the library collection, the curriculum needs, the librarian plays a significant role in balancing the collection. The librarian takes into consideration these factors; while preparing their budget.
He further explained that there are two types of the budget –
1] Lump-sum Budget is an amount given for the entire year.
2] Need-Based Budget is drafted as per the requirements of the organization.
School library’s budget is usually need-based budgets wherein teachers are co-owners with the librarians. It is well explained in the diagram below :
He shared various useful budget templates to help librarians. He gave an insight on preparing academic requisitions, budget summary template, and how to monitor expenditures throughout the year. He concluded his session by mentioning that according to the Ministry of Finance [Law 99], tenders need not be called for library resources. He even shared the Government resource for our reference. His presentation can be viewed on this link
He concluded his session by mentioning that Librarians are experts in:
1] Finding cost-beneficial resources and their availability.
2] Bridging the gap between accounts and academics.
3] Synchronize financial year [FY] & Academic Year [AY].
Work cited
Mane, Anil. Managing Finance from Budget proposal to library resources procurements, Liferarian, Zoom. 16 May 2020.
– Blog post by Rupali Ghanvatkar, Librarian
