Dark times

Purpose - The purpose of the paper is to consider the importance of librarians and library budgets, specifically, what a hierarchy of library needs might look like. Design/methodology/approach - The paper adopts a viewpoint approach. Findings - The budget serves other, ongoing purposes, of course, but the very presence of a budget indicates that the vision is important, worth whatever mulch and compost and labor we can devote to it. Originality/value - The paper presents an original viewpoint of budgeting for libraries in "dark times".