October 15, 2008

Question: 

I have a question about FSCS Elements 400-404 and 405 (Capital revenue and expenditures)  The definition states that these are funds that are “designated by the community…”, “distributed to…”, “received by the library…”  If a library system’s buildings are built by its local government but the funds for the buildings do not actually get placed in the library system’s budget, do they get counted in these elements?

IMLS Response:

We have attached the definitions for each of the items referenced in Susan’s e-mail below. 

IMLS’ recommendation regarding the data element:

For Items 400-404 we recommend including countable revenue from public and private sources regardless of whether or not these monies were placed in the library system’s budget.

Rationale:

Not including this money would result in a systematic undercount of library capital investments at both the system and national levels.

As you all know, we are in a transitional phase for the library survey.  The recommendation above is provided as a guide or general rule of thumb.  If this recommendations differs substantially from past practice we ask that more experienced SDCs or and or members of the 2008 PLSC chime in with their interpretation of these elements.