Review of University Librarian Nancy L. Baker
Fiscal Management and Fundraising
Clearly, one of the primary responsibilities of the University Librarian is to justify and secure the necessary funding to acquire or license collections, make them accessible to those who need them, and provide a wide range of library services to a clientele with very diverse instructional and research needs. I have been responsible for the fiscal management of a state-funded budget that now exceeds $18m. Although the 5% year increases in the collections budget have not been sufficient to cover cost increases for these collections, it has only been necessary to conduct one major journal cancellation effort during the last five years. In other words, we have managed to stretch these increases to cover most of these added costs. In addition, the ability to raise external funds, both in gifts and in grants, has never been more important to the Libraries and the University. The Libraries has had five excellent years of fundraising, especially the last two years. Private money has funded a number of expensive collections and projects that would not otherwise have occurred. During the past five years, I have accomplished the following with the help of others in the Libraries:
- Exceeded $1.5m in grants during the last five years. For a summary of successful library grants, see Appendix B.
- Eliminated $1.1m worth of salaries as mandated by budget cuts since 2001 through the use of vacancies, without laying off any existing staff.
- Balanced the libraries’ state-funded budget.
- Managed a potentially, serious deficit without turning to the University for additional funds. (When one of our serials vendors, Rowecom, declared bankruptcy after we had prepaid for serials that were not to be delivered, we worked with the General Counsel’s office, in partnership with other universities and serial publishers who were also victims, to recover as much of the funds as possible from Rowecom’s parent company. The remainder was covered by existing library budget).
- Upgraded public and staff computers on a regular basis with funds from student computing fees, salary savings and development accounts. This is especially noteworthy since the University Libraries does not have a separate designated budget line for equipment and budget cuts have diminished our capability with salary savings. Given the Libraries’ growing dependence on technology, having up-to-date equipment is critical to our operation.
The following were accomplished with help from others in the Libraries and the UI Foundation:
- Exceeded $1m in fundraising each of the last 2 years, largely with the help of several generous estate gifts. These were our best years ever. This is particularly noteworthy since the Libraries tend to have many donors who make relatively small gifts or who split their gifts among several departments on campus. In addition, several of these years were not generally good fundraising years nationally because of the economy. For a snapshot of library fundraising during the past 10 years, see Appendix C.
- Transformed the Friends of the Libraries Board into a Development Advisory Board with a much clearer mission to assist with fundraising. This restructured Board has provided excellent advice on ways to maximize our fundraising efforts.
- Established a University Librarian’s Club for donors who contribute at least $1,000 per year to the University Libraries.
- Worked with the UI Foundation to create a very attractive plaque honoring major donors to the Libraries that will be installed in the Main Library as part of the Sesquicentennial celebrations. We are currently getting approval from individual donors for inclusion on this recognition plaque.
- Worked with the UI Foundation to restructure the library fundraising support from a separately hired Development Officer working exclusively for the Libraries, to a designated staff member within the Major Gifts Department who has added responsibility for the Libraries. Chris Collins has served in this latter role very effectively since 2004.
- Restructured the Coordinator for the Friends position into a Coordinator for Public Relations. The Libraries has had considerably more and better press coverage since this change. One of our challenges is always to “get the word out” about what we are doing. Since the Libraries do not have a traditional “Friends” group, there is less need for a staff coordinator.
- Restructured our major annual public event from a dinner with a speaker to a reception with a speaker. The attendance at the dinner had been decreasing each year. With this change in format, attendance at these annual programs has increased considerably.
- Sponsored an annual thank you dinner for University Librarian’s Club members for the last three years. This informal catered dinner has been held in a private home and has been well received by those attending.
- Sponsored a series of activities celebrating the acquisition of the Libraries’ 4 millionth volume, the 10th anniversary of the Iowa Women’s Archive, the 10th anniversary of the Information Arcade, and the 30th anniversary of the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences.
- Redesigned the Annual Report from a lengthy narrative to a shorter, more attractive summary of key accomplishments featuring charts, graphs, and other visual information sources along with text. Feedback has been very positive on this change.
- Approved a series of activities during the Spring and Fall of 2005 to commemorate the Sesquicentennial Anniversary of the University Libraries (Appendix D).
- Worked with UI Athletics Director Bob Bowlsby to establish a partnership with Athletics to assist with fundraising for the Libraries. To date, Athletics included a library fundraising brochure featuring student athlete/scholars using the Libraries in the football season ticket mailing for the last two years. Several months ago, Lisa Bluder, UI Women’s Basketball coach, agreed to serve as a public advocate and champion for this partnership. Athletics will also recognize the Libraries at the first home football game this year in honor of the Sesquicentennial of the Libraries.
- Sponsored “Dick Tracy Herky” in the Libraries with funds specially for this purpose as part of the Kinnick Stadium celebration.
