[Publib] Budget cuts - hours vs. materials

[James Casey]

There have been many excellent points raised in this discussion.  Some of the more recent trends I have heard at ALA Annuals and Mid Winters emphasized that the patrons increasingly want their Library to be a "destination".   Instead of materials in the form of organized collections, patrons are expecting libraries to provide ACCESS to databases, electronic resources and to programming.   This all costs money as well.  So it may be a matter of how materials money is expended rather than simply the amount.  The quote below is from my report on ALA Annual 2008 that is currently in an ALA Member Blog under this link.  http://blogs.ala.org/memberblog.php?m=200807
ALAWO BREAKOUT SESSON-THE FUTURE OF LIBRARIES: This session was presented to a packed, standing room only audience. Consultant Joan Frye Williams presented three primary trends: 1/ That Libraries are in the "idea business" and will be increasingly finding ways to deliver information and ideas rather than assembling collections. 2/ "Relationship based service models" will focus on "members" instead of "patrons" or "customers". 3/ Libraries will be destinations for members to come together rather than locations of collections. Stephen Abram of SirsiDynix also emphasized personal service and urged Librarians to identify their own names on tags and Facebook for their patrons. "Member Relationships" will be essential as librarians should be known to "members" much as one knows the name of her/his doctor, lawyer, accountant, pastor, etc.. Dr. Jose'-Marie Griffiths of the University of NC at Chapel Hill School of Library and Information Science, also confirmed that Libraries would become less the repositories for collections than places and destinations where the public will come to stay and enjoy the environment.
One example of a trend towards the Library as a "destination" has been the emergence of café's in Libraries.  Oak Lawn Public Library is fortunate enough to have an extremely well run mini-restaurant in our facility.  http://www.thebookendscafe.com/id29.html   Boston Public Library has a full blown restaurant and an elegant "afternoon tea" offering in their splendid Main Library.   ---  I know of difficulties some libraries in suburban Chicago have had with maintaining the vendor presence in their facilities.  Hence, the Library café concept has not had clear sailing.

Jim Casey,
  Director
Oak Lawn Public Library
ALA Council Member



From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Andrea Berstler
Sent: Friday, August 08, 2008 7:20 AM
To: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: RE: [Publib] Budget cuts - hours vs. materials

I believe the question is - do you cut materials to expand hours? - at least this appears to be the question in the "official" version.

 the answer is - why would you consider this?   Has there been any sort of study? Do you have requests from the patrons of those branches for additional hours? Could you make an hour "shift" and open late one morning to stay open that night, etc? What options have and have not been considered? Are there other things that could be trimmed to make funding available (office supplies, cleaning, etc).

When Pennsylvania slashed library funding 5 years ago, most if not all libraries in the state faced this question. Funding cuts caused libraries to face anywhere from 25% to 50% or more drop in state funding (a major source of money for many PA libraries). We cut both, and then some. We have recovered some of our funding; however the cut in materials spending dramatically affected our circulation. From 2002 to 2003 we experienced an 11 % drop in circulation . . . but not a corresponding drop in visits (-7%). I have to believe that much of that circulation drop was due to a lack of materials (as well as the disgruntled employees who got no raises for 2 years).

Cutting materials to add hours? I would recommend your library consider other options. While the extra hours are nice for patrons, if there are less interesting things there to borrow, will you really need them?


Andrea

Andrea Berstler - Director

The Village Library of Morgantown
PO Box 797, 207 N Walnut St
Morgantown, PA
www.villagelibrary.org<http://www.villagelibrary.org/>
610-286-1022
Preserving the Past . . . Preparing for the Future . . .

Board Member - Association for Rural and Small Libraries



Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.    - Babe Ruth



________________________________
From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Tiar, Marc
Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2008 2:35 PM
To: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Publib] Budget cuts - hours vs. materials

Hello out there,

I'm a new subscriber to the list, having just joined to post this question (although I was a subscriber many years ago).  In these tough economic times, we're having to make some difficult choices.  We are trying to find any data, anecdotal or otherwise, to support or refute a decision one way or another.   We have been searching the literature but not doing too well - it's sort of a tough concept to put into search terms, due both to such common words and the many synonyms of them that appear in the journals.

Put briefly, is it better to cut hours/days of operation or acquisitions?

Or, the way it was phrased to us to look into:

Washoe County Library has been asked to consider cutting deeply into its Library Materials budget in order to fill personnel vacancies, which might allow some library branches to expand public hours. If you cut deeply into your materials budget, did your circulation and/or visitor statistics decrease?  By maintaining or increasing public hours, despite cutting your materials budget, did your circulation and/or visitor statistics increase?

Many thanks for any information you can share.

Marc Tiar
Washoe County Library
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