Course Information and Navigation

Site:	MSL Learn
Course:	Trustee Essentials: Understanding Local Government Budgeting and Finance
Book:	Course Information and Navigation

Printed by:	Guest user
Date:	Thursday, April 3, 2025, 9:45 AM

Description

Read this section first for some information about the course and how to navigate through.

Objectives and Course Specifics
Helpful Hints
Glossary and Vocabulary Links

Objectives and Course Specifics

Participants will

Learn about basic principles of local government accounting in Montana
Learn about the role of local government officials versus the library board authority when it comes to library funds
Learn about financial reports, revenue sources, and key expenditures found in libraries
Learn about best practices for building a library budget

Estimated course length: 1-hour

Continuing Education Units: 1 credit in Library Administration

Course Open Date: August 1, 2023 - minor updates and new resource links added September 2024.

The continuing education certificate is embedded in the last section of the course. It will unlock when you have finished the course.
Please download and save/print the certificate when you complete the course.
A badge will automatically be awarded and added to your MSL Learn profile.
Claim MSL Continuing Education credits by logging in to ASPeN and using the Continuing Education Control Panel. Select the course from the dropdown list of Independent Learning events, click Go!, and the credit will be saved to your certification record.
Courses are listed by open date and then title of the course.

Content Support

Reach out to the MSL Consulting team for questions about the content of this course or for direct support for your library.

Tracy Cook, Lead Consulting Librarian

Helpful Hints

This is a self-paced course. Our advice is to pace yourself!

A good strategy is to do one section at a time and take a break after each section.

As you complete required activities in each section, the next section will unlock.

This course includes lesson, book, and quiz activities.

Quizzes include information from within a lesson or book.

You can print books and resource documents to use as a reference for the quiz or print for your reference as you engage in your duties as a public library trustee.

Screenshot instructions for how to print a book activity in the course.

Use the Course Index on the left to move to the next section.

Course index icon on left of screen, collapsed.

Screenshot of expanded course index.

Glossary and Vocabulary Links

As you work though the course, you will notice words that are linked to definitions.

As an example:

"Revenue" is a term you will need to know. Hover the cursor over the term and you can then click on the pop-up to see a full definition.

Screenshot of linked glossary term in course.

These are provided to help become familiar with the terms and access additional information easily.

All terms are available to view in the Budget and Finance Terms section of the course.

You can even export the entire glossary to use a a handy reference.