They also pay for our time to catalog their books plus OCLC costs. They all now have online catalogs in their libraries and none of them have had to do any cataloging or have a cataloger on their staff. Do not launch a program until you know that you have the resources, both personnel and financial in place. Make sure that the payoff will be worth the effort. Know your audience.
Academic libraries are fortunate in that they have alumni.
As a membership library, or a county library for instance, you do not have a built in constituency like a law school, and many of your potential donors are already contributing to their law schools. This is why I believe that our summer associate orientations are so important. Whether we entertain them at the library or in their firms, they could be potential donors, and we do our best to make them feel welcome and learn about us and our resources. Make sure that your front-line staff have excellent customer service skills, as you never know who is visiting or calling your library. If you do choose to launch a big fund raising campaign, make sure that not only everyone on your board donates, but that you do too.