[Michlib-l] Responses to my questions about naming rights

[Doug Koschik]

My original posting to Michlib-l was:

  The Baldwin Public Library has a naming rights policy:

http://baldwinlib.org/assets/PDFs/Library-Policies/Naming-Policy.pdf

It provides no guidelines, however, on how much money should be donated for
any given element of the building.  For example:

How much of a donation will provide naming rights for the entire library?

How much of a donation will provide naming rights for a Youth Room or Teen
Room or Reference Room or Local History Room or cafe or a meeting room or
the story room within the Youth Room?

How much of a donation will provide naming rights for a section of a
room--e.g., the beginning-to-read section of the Youth Room or the Adult
history section?

If you allow a room or area to receive multiple donations, do you honor the
multiple donors with a plaque instead of a name?  (For example, "This patio
was paid for with contributions from ...")  In this case, do you charge
each donor the same amount?  Or do you accept different amounts and then
list the donors by donation amount?

If your library has such guidelines, I would very much appreciate hearing
from you.  Alternatively, if you have no formal guidelines, but have given
out naming rights in the past, I would appreciate hearing what your
practice has been.  (For example, we had an $8 million building project.
Somebody donated $1 million.  We named the library after them.)


 I realize that donation amounts will vary by the type of library.  Since a
large library will have a larger and more expensive Youth Room, the naming
rights for that room would probably be commensurately larger.  So it would
be helpful if you could provide some indication of the size of your
building.

The responses I received are below:

One library responded:  "I believe that a library should not be named after
an individual or company unless that donor has paid more than half of the
construction cost for the building.  In regards to naming rooms, donors
should pay for the square foot cost of the room in order to have the room
named after them."

Two libraries noted that they named their buildings about donors who gave
under 20% of the construction cost.

One library noted that the naming of a library or part of a library is
sometimes made for other than monetary reasons.

One library noted that they have a "wall of honor" to honor long-time
volunteers (over 2,500 hours) and donors of over $3,000.

Another library said that it named one department for 25% of the cost of
the renovation of that department, and a room in that department for 15% of
the total project cost.  Smaller donations going toward the building
renovation will be acknowledged on plaques.

The Muskegon Public Schools' policy on naming buildings is as follows:

*The Board of Education reserve the right to designate and/or establish the
names of all buildings, grounds, recreational facilities, playgrounds,
rooms within a building, or parts thereof of any and all properties held by
Muskegon Public Schools.  Furthermore, the Board reserves the right to
commemorate, memorialize, recognize, and otherwise honor any individual by
the conferring of an individual's name to a facility or any part thereof.*

* It shall be the policy of the Board to defer naming any facility or part
thereof after any currently employed employee or currently-serving elected
official until such time as the individual has not such current status with
the district.*

Orion Township has a nice naming policy, complete with formulas(!):
http://orionlibrary.org/documents/policy-manual.pdf#page=47

Thanks to everyone who got back to me on this issue.

Doug

-- 
Doug Koschik
Director
Baldwin Public Library
300 W. Merrill St.
Birmingham, MI  48009
E-mail: doug.koschik at baldwinlib.org
Telephone:  248-554-4681
Fax:  248-647-6393
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