Question
Here’s the situation: Our library received a grant to digitize our town’s newspaper; the digitization is from 1935 to 1990. The digitized newspaper is now a database. The grant paid for the digitization and the installation as a database accessible from our website. The grant does not cover the ongoing cost of hosting the database.
Therefore, here’s the question: Could the ongoing annual cost of hosting the database be considered part of the cost of materials for the purpose of meeting the materials requirement in our budget?
Answer
There two parts to this question. The cost of digitizing and the ongoing access (hosting) cost.
As far as the materials expenditure requirement of the State Aid to Public Libraries program is concerned, all expenditures for materials, both physical and e-content, count towards meeting the requirement. Expenditures for access to materials do not count towards the expenditure requirement.
Please remember that expenditures for materials from all sources of income (municipal and other income) to the library can be used to meet this requirement.
This post was written by dcarty on December 21, 2011
Posted under expenditures, Materials Expenditure Requirement, State Aid to Public Libraries
