A basic description of the Planning, Programming and Budgeting System (PPBS) and how it can be utilized by the practicing librarian is presented. PPBS is described as a system of relating planning to budgeting that seeks to get your dollars worth for you by analyzing what you are doing in the light of what you should be doing and plan to do in the years to come and tieing that back to your standard yearly budget. The importance of having clearly defined program objectives is stressed. A planning budget must follow a generally standard pattern which is introduced by intensive thinking or analysis about the library needs of the community and followed by an analysis of the potential and actual benefits of the library's services. Six steps needed to effectively use PPBS are: (1) critically define broad goals and objectives, (2) lay out a program structure, (3) set out the objectives for each program, (4) detail every possible way of attaining each objective, (5) make a cost-effectiveness study of the alternate approaches of each alternative and (6) formulate rules of standards by which to rank the alternatives in order of desirability. This procedure should be applied frequently to new problem areas -- at least each budget cycle. (NH)