Entrepreneurs in the Public Library: Reinventing an Institution

Library Trends, Wntr, 2000 by Edwin S. Clay, Iii, Patricia C. Bangs

ABSTRACT

IN THIS CASE STUDY, THE AUTHORS DESCRIBE a library system in northern Virginia which has reinvented itself as a public service corporation. The Fairfax County Public Library in Fairfax, Virginia, has successfully developed a public-private model for fund development using a top managerial committee, known as the Enterprise Group, to integrate fund-development activities into every aspect of the library's operation. Balancing the need for additional revenue with the traditional mission of meeting the informational demands of its users in a cost-effective fashion, the library has been able to avoid the public relations and legal pitfalls that are inherent when public or nonprofit organizations attempt to find private sources of income.

INTRODUCTION

Since 1993, fund-raising and development have become a mainstay in the budget mix of libraries. According to Library Journal's 1999 Budget Report, fund-raising activities for libraries have grown 228 percent in the past six years. In just the last year, the number of libraries reporting fund-raising operations such as foundations jumped 62 percent (Bogart, 1999, p. 6). Obviously, this growth represents the increased need--due in part to the high cost of technology--for alternative funding sources as well as the constrained circumstances of local library budgets.

Public libraries have certainly contributed to this growth, evolving their fiscal development activities from simple used book sales to sophisticated corporate partnerships, grantsmanship, and direct marketing through foundations. As public libraries scurry to augment traditional sources of funding, they must face a number of difficulties, including the public relations consequences of embracing what is perceived as commercialization, threats to tax-exempt status, and the loss of control that can result when corporate funds are solicited.

J. Gregory Dees (1998), an associate professor at the Harvard Business School specializing in social entrepreneurship, suggested in a 1998 Harvard Business Review article that leaders of nonprofits must carefully design their strategies on what he calls a "social enterprise spectrum" (p. 56). His definition of this term comprises a model that effectively mixes both the commercial and noncommercial aspects of a nonprofit organization, such as the public library. As he explains: "People want to make contributions to the common good, or to their vision of it. The challenge is to harness these social impulses and marry them to the best aspects of business practice in order to create a social sector that is as effective as it can be" (Dees, 1998, p. 67).

ADAPTING ENTREPRENEURSHIP TO THE PUBLIC LIBRARY: A CASE STUDY

The Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL), which serves nearly a million residents in northern Virginia, has adopted some of the concepts promulgated by Dees as it reinvents itself, not just as a library, but as a public service corporation.

While the Fairfax County Public Library is located in the affluent northern Virginia suburbs outside Washington, DC, like many library systems throughout the country in the past decade, it has faced shrinking funds. The library competes with seventy-one other county entities for limited tax funds. Its FY 1999 budget of $25,796,130 results in a per capita cost of $26.74. Compared to seven other major public library systems in the Washington, DC, area, FCPL's expenditures per capita rank near the bottom.

When county belt-tightening resulted in the loss to the library of about 100 positions in the early 1990s, culminating with the closing of four mini-branches three years ago, library management decided it needed to "go outside the box" to maintain and augment the quality service that Fairfax County residents had come to expect.

Innovative thinking has resulted in the establishment of a number of programs which provide fund-raising opportunities, including:

* the establishment of a Center for the Book, affiliated with the Library of Congress, which provides free programs for adults, as well as fund-raising programs;

* a volunteer program that promotes the idea that there is no job unsuitable for a volunteer, solicits volunteer help from corporations, and includes volunteer Web designers, Internet tutors for the public, and a volunteer-organized music recital program;

* a partnership between the library, its foundation, and two local utility companies which provided funding for a special environmental collection;

* staff training in managing patron problem behavior, which was recognized with a feature article in Public Libraries (Bangs, 1998) and a presentation at the Public Library Association. The sale of the Problem Behavior Manual (Fairfax County Public Library, 1997) developed for the training module has become a source of extra income for the library.

As a result of these and other efforts, in FY 1999, nearly 77 percent of Fairfax County residents owned FCPL library cards. There were nearly 5 million library visits and a record 10 million loans. An average of 5,465 new users registered each month. Circulation, which had dropped slightly in the early 1990s when funding was drastically cut, has increased by more than 1.5 million since 1993. More than 135,000 users attended more than 3,000 library programs, and the library earned a 94 percent approval rating in a community survey conducted by Goldhaber Research Associates.