Planning and Budgeting for School Media Programs at the Building, District, and Regional Levels: O.R. in the Little Red Schoolhouse

Abstract

The problems of resource allocation in the school library are analyzed and a practical operations research (O.R.) approach towards accountability is presented. A discussion of the nine-step solution procedure is given, including the use of four planning instruments: inventory of services, preference form, data collection guide, and program costing matrix. The use of cost-benefit analysis is shown to be helpful in determining the "best" allocation strategy. There is a presentation of implementation suggestions, and examples of the use of the methodology in actual school situations are given. Extensions of the work from building level school library media programs to district (system) and regional level learning resource (media) programs are also presented.