An investigation of the relationship between public relations activities and budget allocation in public libraries

摘要

Due to the financial crisis many public libraries are experiencing, research was formulated to ascertain whether libraries could gain higher budget allocation if they employed public relations activities. Business and industry have successfully done so, openly acknowledging the importance of the public relations function and of its directing specialist. The following hypothesis was formulated: Libraries that engage in public relations activities will show a higher public support as evidence by a higher budget allocation than libraries who do not engage in public relations activities. The method of data collection was a twenty-six item questionnaire sent to Connecticut libraries servicing a population of twenty-five thousand or more. When the questionnaires were returned the answers were translated into a numerical code, giving each library a weighted composite score along with the budget allocation, which was considered in terms of percentages of the total town budget. The correlation coefficient (Pearson r) between public relations score (the weighted composite score) and budget allocation was calculated to be 0.53 with a standard deviation of 0.13; between public relations score and per capita expenditures was 0.75 with a standard deviation of 0.08 thus indicating a significant relationship. Summary of the findings: (1) The hypothesis is supported. (2) The activities that appear to closely correlate to a higher budget allocation are the managerial or administrative aspects of public relations: research, planning and evaluation. (3) The size of the population is not a critical variable influencing public relations activities. (4) The patterns of employment that seem to correlate to higher budget allocation are (a) full/part time specialist on staff, (b) possibly a joint combination of public relations/programming position; and (c) a high involvement of the Directors, Assistant Directors, and Trustees.