Data for material costs were sourced from the American Library Association’s Library Use Value Calculator Explanations of Values. As far as we can determine, these material costs are from 2018, and current prices for materials may be slightly higher.
| Library Service | Value of Service | Based On |
| Adult Books Borrowed | $17.00 | Amazon.com average price |
| Young Adult Books Borrowed | $12.00 | Amazon.com average price |
| Children Books Borrowed | $17.00 | Amazon.com average price |
| Audiobooks Borrowed | $9.95 | Audible.com download average |
| Interlibrary Loan Requests | $25.00 | Amazon.com average price plus shipping |
| eBooks Downloaded | $15.00 | Estimated B&N/Amazon average |
| Magazines Read | $5.00 | Estimated purchase price average |
| Newspapers Read | $9.50 | Boston Globe subscription (outside city) |
| Movies Borrowed | $4.00 | Estimated Netflix average |
| CDs Borrowed | $9.95 | iTunes download album average |
| Music Downloaded | $1.00 | iTunes download song average |
| Meeting Room Use (per hour) | $25.00 | Estimated value |
| Adult Programs Attended | $15.00 | Entertainment/program admission fee – estimated average per adult |
| Young Adult Programs Attended | $12.00 | Entertainment/program admission fee – estimated average per youth |
| Children’s Programs Attended | $7.00 | Entertainment/program admission fee – estimated average per child |
| Museum Passes Borrowed | $20.00 | Museum admission fee – estimated average for two adults |
| Computer Use (per hour) | $12.00 | FedEx/Kinkos price |
| Database Searches | $19.95 | Average cost for online article search |
| Reference Assistance | $7.00 | Average library cost |
Data for labor costs were sourced from a nationwide survey conducted by our team in 2019-2020 asking U.S. librarians and library workers about what kinds of tasks they perform regularly, how much time they spend on various types of tasks, and salary information. Additional estimations of time spent on various tasks were sourced from existing literature about library work as well as the personal and professional experiences of our team members.