Keep in mind maintaining Southern Association Standards and following the Program of Studies Implementation Manual as they apply to library media programs. 
 

• School Councils, Budget Committees, and/or Principals prepare and approve school budgets and allocate funds based on identified needs.  Media Specialists make budget requests annually to meet the needs of the media center programs, resources, activities, facilities, equipment and staff.   All needs are for the purpose of improving student achievement and literacy.

• A basic media program will have funds allocated for library books, AV materials, periodicals, and supplies.  Other funds allocated could include online services, AV equipment, special reading programs, author visits, computers, digital cameras,  and other resources identified to meet the mission of the media center and the school.

• A formal budget request should be submitted to the appropriate school committee or person with each line item listed and an amount attached to it along with the rationale including the needs assessment and its source.

• Budgeting starts in January for the following school year.  Budget requests and proposals should be ready to be submitted at this point.

• Once the SBDM Council approves the school budget, the Media Specialist should receive the official allocations for the library media program for the following school year.  If you have not received your allocation by the time you leave for the summer, then ask the principal for it upon returning to school in the fall.

Additional funds from grants and awards 
AASL Awards
YALSA Awards
KSMA Awards

• Every year, in the March issue, SLJ calculates the average prices for books for this year and the previous years.  SLJ's Average Book Prices

• Financial Spreadsheets (Book Fair Money, Paid Books, and other money.) MS EXCEL 95 Spreadsheet. Save this locally and use it to account for deposits and expenditures. To save this locally, right mouse click directly on the 'financial spreadsheet hyperlink'; choose 'save target as'.  Then choose the location on your hard drive or floppy diskette and click on save. This may be opened from your saved location and tailored for your school.  To view it, click cancel when asked for an id/password.

• Budget Formula - A spreadsheet tool to assist in planning your budget with SCIF coded funds.  It can be saved locally, edited and input data manipulated.  Fill in only the boxes in yellow and look for total results to appear.  Use this with "what if" scenarios as well as the "what is" scenario.
   

• Many schools subscribe to printed review sources such as School Library Journal, Wilson Catalogs (Children's, Middle and Junior High School, Senior High School).  For selection purposes, you may ask to borrow issues of School Library Journal or Booklist.  Recommendations from students, teachers, and parents are important considerations for purchase as well. 

• A cumulative list of books are often kept  on a Book Order Spreadsheet  You can save this to a local drive by right clicking the hyperlink and choosing "save target as".  After saving it and using the saved version, you will note that when your book selections are filled in, you can print the book list, send it to Media Services.  Don't forget to add the PO number from the PO you generate in MUNIS to this book list.

• Library Media Specialists often review items at Workshops, meetings, and  conferences (AASL, KSMA, CKMSA, U of K McConnell Literature.

• Fifty Multicultural Books Every Child Should Know - titles listed by level from  preschool through age 12.  List is compiled by Compiled by Ginny Moore Kruse and Kathleen T. Horning; Cooperative Children's Book Center; School of Education; University of Wisconsin-Madison.

• Children's Picture Book Database at  Miami University -Abstracts of over 45,000 children's picture books with search capabilities for over 950 keywords, including topics, concepts, and skills which describe each book.

• ACQWeb's Directory of Book Reviews on the Web

• ALA Resources

• Evalutech - a database of recommended instructional materials for use in K-12 settings. 

• Teen Reads. Com

• Reader's Robot

• The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

• Bookpage
   

• Creating an order list may be done online and printed to attach to a purchase order (an alternative may be to Book Order Spreadsheet)

• TITLEWAVE is Follett's catalog of over 85,000 book and CD-ROM titles. With TITLEWAVE Internet Edition, you can create collection development lists, search for individual titles, and obtain the printed results to attach to Purchase Orders.

• School Select™ is Baker & Taylor's easy to use, powerful searching tool. Use The Collection Connection™ to search B&T's database of over 63,000 book titles You may obtain printed results to attach to Purchase Orders.

• IPage is Ingram's online catalog whereby lists of books for purchase can be generated.

• After selecting items to purchase and generating an attached list where necessary, a purchase order must be generated  to one of the FCPS Board Approved Vendors for AudioVisual Materials,  Library Books/PreBound Books,    Magazines,  and  Library Supplies, Office Supplies and Teaching Suppies.  Book Binding is no longer under FCPS bid.  Some books with one company listed are under state price contract.

• Newspaper Prices  for this school year for The Courier Journal and The Lexington Herald Leader are listed for daily and weekends.

• If one of the approved vendors cannot supply the resources you want, you may purchase from any vendor who is already found in the MUNIS system.  Special instructions for generating library purchase order are  important to follow so that you will receive your items in a timely manner.  See MUNIS POs for Library orders for a guide.  If you need to know balances on any of the 0159 Library accounts for your school, you may contact Karen Goocey for this information.