How do libraries make out?

Is $1/square foot a fair amount of Category II (C2) funding for libraries?  Well, I can't really talk about "fair," since that's in the eye of the beholder, but let's compare the funding of a few libraries with the funding for the schools in the same area.  How will I decide which applicants to include in my study?  The same way I always do: I'll take what's easy to find.  My sample is selected because the library square footage popped up on Google.  I got the square footage numbers off the Internet, so I know they're true and didn't bother to verify them.  Also, I matched the school district to the library just based on name; I can't swear the service footprint is identical.  Where I noticed a small library (including bookmobiles), I boosted funding up to the $6,000 minimum, but I didn't do that for any schools (because the difference would have been negligible).  So the data below is a blurry keyhole view of the landscape.

Community	Enrollment	School $	Library $	Ratio
Holyoke, MA	5,316	$797,400	$40,000	19.9
Chandler, AZ	42,876	$6,431,400	$124,500	51.7
Denver, CO	70,717	$10,607,550	$752,137	14.1
Gilpin County, CO	434	$65,100	$12,000	5.4
Taylor County, FL	3,040	$456,000	$7,158	63.7
Broward County, FL	222,527	$33,379,050	$1,447,408	23.1

The last column shows the multiple of funding that the school district gets.  What is a fair multiple?  Well, you're not likely to think that both 14:1 and 51:1 are both fair, so everyone will find that unfair in at least a couple of cases.  So no matter what you think is fair, not every library will get a fair amount of funding.

Taking a step back, the real funding problem for libraries is not going to be the $1/sq.ft. formula.  Most libraries don't apply for the E-Rate, and even fewer are going to apply for C2 (since it requires CIPA compliance).

It gets even worse: now that they're phasing out voice service, a single-site library that's not CIPA-compliant is eligible for $0 in E-Rate funding.  The only service left in the program that does not require CIPA compliance is digital transmission service (DTS) purchased from a telecommunications carrier.  Single-site applicants generally don't need DTS, so they'll get bupkus.

Take that, rural libraries.