Certified Public Library Administrator® Program

Budget and Finance

Core Standard

Given the following resources are available to the candidate:

Library’s vision, mission, core values, and strategic plan.
Current operational and capital budgets.
Programs and services the library provides.
A history of past financial requirements, current funding sources, budgetary protocols, and approval authorities.

The candidate:

Understands the role of the library trustee in the budgeting process.
Understands financial statements (i.e., profit & loss, balance sheets, assets, etc.).
Understands basic internal and external audits.
Understands the institution’s financial policies and procedures (i.e., purchasing, credit cards, reimbursements, financial control).
Develops, prepares, and monitors organizational budgets such as programming budgets, capital budgets, etc.
Conducts cost/benefit analyses.
Identifies and describes differences among funding resources including district / political unit (municipal or county) / private (“association”).
Works collaboratively with accounting personnel.

The criteria to judge the adequacy of the performances are:

Budgets and cost/benefit reports comply with generally accepted accounting principles.

Learning Objectives:

Describes the relationship between budgeting and overall planning for the organization’s goals and objectives.
Develops a program budget based on a line-item budget (convert a line-item budget to a program budget).
Performs cost /benefit analysis for specific library services or programs.
Develops performance measures and operations indicators for specific library functions.
Identifies and evaluates the feasibility of using various potential sources of funding for a major capital project.
Presents a program/service budget plans or a capital budget plan to the library’s governing authority or general government administrator.
Understands and monitors performance of the use of public and non-governmental funds.

Revised June 2023