Last night, the Kansas City Public Library hosted the opening reception for the Second National Joint Conference of Librarians of Color. I was honored to be a part of such a gathering! More than just an opportunity to show off our gorgeous Central Branch, it was a wonderful chance to mix and mingle with librarians from all over the country. I loved engaging so many people in passionate conversation about libraries!

Over the course of the evening, I noticed that there was one question that got asked by everyone I spoke to:

“Where did you get the money for all this?”

• Our Central Branch building is a retrofitted bank. How were we able to get the building and convert it the way we did?
• Where do we get the money to present 20-30 free-to-attend public events each month – ranging from scholarly presentations, to art and artifact exhibits, to movie screenings?
• How can we afford to keep two full-time professional graphic designers on staff?
• Where do we get the funding to maintain our dedicated business information center?
• Etc.

Funding questions became the ongoing theme of my evening.
Continue reading “JCLC 2012, KCPL & Library Marketing” →