Why is a library’s budget a political document? Dean of the University Libraries at the University of West Florida and author of the recent book, Financial Management in Academic Libraries, Robert Dugan, explains in this week’s episode that budgets express how library management prioritizes services and programs. Without unlimited resources, libraries have to rank what they do and then commit to doing it based on the funding they receive from the institution. The budget is a statement that promises to use allocated resources to successfully carry out specific services. Further, Dugan explains how to get past the idea that a budget is a constraining document. Rather than stressing out about the lack of funds available to enable all of the services a library must provide, managers, as they become more familiar with their budgets, begin to understand how the budget connects to the strategic plan. In other words, stop fretting about the bottom line. Instead, work with the parts of the budget that can be influenced.