Springfield
Library System Analysis
(revised 3/01/03)
All data was taken from
the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioner’s Web Site. All data is from
the Commissioner’s FY2001 data reports, available on the Web.
- According
to aggregate data for FY2001, the total operating expenditures for Massachusetts’
libraries were $196,638,041. Expenditures
for salaries only were $137,374,481. Salaries made up 69.86 percent of
all expenditures.
- In
FY2001, Springfield received
$5,322,952 from the City of Springfield
for operation of the library system. However, the total operating expenditures
per capita were $6,612,968. These total operating expenditures include
revenues “from all its municipal trust, gift sources and State Aid to Public
Libraries monies.” It is unclear whether or not the extra
$1,290,016 includes funds from the Springfield School Department.
- The
Springfield library system spent
$3,827,998 on salaries in FY2001. As shown in Table One, Springfield
had the only Massachusetts library system in a city larger than 100,000
persons that fell significantly below the 69.86 percent average salary expenditure
mark, meaning that Springfield spent proportionally more on non-salary items
(such as books, maintenance, and benefits) than other systems.
Note that the salary data “includes salaries and wages before deductions
but excludes employee benefits.”
- Data
in table one also shows that Springfield
spent around the same amount of money on purchasing materials as other systems
(14%). It was also in the middle
of the five in the percentage of “other” spending (12%). Note that neither one of these expenditure
categories contain employee benefit expenditures.
- However,
once all reported expenditures in the three categories used by the Board
of Library Commissioners are tallied, each system has a certain amount left
over. For some, it is very small
(0% to 1%). For Springfield
and Cambridge, it is quite large (16% and 13%, respectively). For Springfield,
these expenditures were over $1 million in FY2001. It is highly likely that the majority of
these monies were spent on employee benefits.
- The
fact that Cambridge also has a large amount of “extra” expenditures implies
that it also may be responsible for paying employee benefits, and the fact
that Boston, Worcester and Lowell have almost no excess expenditures implies
that their employee benefits are counted as “fixed costs” and do not show
up in library expenditure data.
- Using
the information on FTEs by branch library and available data on Full Time
Equivalent (FTE) employees, it is possible to backwards-engineer an estimated
operating cost for the Springfield
library system using salary estimates from other systems. Library costs by system by FTE are contained
in Table One.
- In
FY2001, the Springfield library
system had 106.9 FTE employees. The actual employment was 71 full-time
and 55 part-time employees, as well as one director. The Board of Library Commissioners’ data
on the FTE employees by branch library in Springfield
are contained in Table Two. In total, there were 42.9 FTE employees
employed in all branches in FY2001.
- Operating
expenses for the branch libraries can be estimated by multiplying the number
of Full Time Equivalent employees by the average expenditure per FTE contained
in Table One. Using the Springfield
rate per FTE, the branch libraries would cost $2,653,848 to operate.
- Because
Cambridge has multiple
branch libraries, is a city similar in size to Springfield,
and seems to pay employee benefits from its own budget, it seems to be a
good system to compare to Springfield. Applying the Cambridge
average FTE rate gives an estimated operating cost for the Springfield
branch libraries of $2,003,101 per year. The Cambridge
library system’s comparison data is contained in Table Four.
- This
operating expense data can be estimated for each branch as well. This data is presented in Table Three.
- In
FY2001, the Springfield library
system had 106.9 FTE employees. As 42.9 of the FTE employees work in branches,
this leaves 64 FTE employees working in the main library.
- Using
the analysis for the branch libraries laid out
above, we can estimate the cost for the Central library using Springfield
FTE cost data as $3,959,120. Using the Cambridge
average data as $2,988,309, including salaries, materials, and other
library costs.
Conclusions:
If the Springfield
library system was run in the same manner as the Cambridge
system, with the same budget priorities and decisions (assuming this is possible),
the entire system would cost approximately $4,991,410 per year to operate.
This is $2,205,261 less than the FY2000 $7,196,671 appropriation
given to the Springfield Library and Museum Association, and these excess
funds would be assumed to go directly to the museum system. Using the $5.0 million figure gives a per capita
cost for the library of $32.82. In
addition, the per capita contribution to the SLMA from the city for the museums
only in FY2001 is estimated to have been approximately $14.50. It is important to note that the Springfield
system seems more expensive to run than other city systems in Worcester
an Lowell
because employee benefits are paid directly by the libraries instead of being
hidden in another budget line item (i.e. “fixed costs”). However, it seems that, like Springfield,
the Cambridge system pays these
costs themselves. More research needs
to be done to answer this question.