OSFOL Ocean Shores Friends of the Library Newsletter 8-16-06
This Newsletter we have a staff report from Judy Stull the Library Director to the City Council and the Citizens of Ocean Shores.
Council Staff Report 14 August 2006
I am here tonight to speak to you about the Library, and I am happy to say that the state of the Library is good - busy but good. You all get my monthly reports in detail, so tonight I am going to expand on them.
The Library's objective is to serve the informational, recreational, cultural and educational needs of our citizens, other North Beach residents and visitors to the area. In addition to basic Library services, our now 13 year old facility serves as a community meeting place and offers voter registration assistance and public Internet access. A five-member Library Board provides oversight, and is comprised of local citizens appointed to five-year terms by the Mayor and confirmed by City Council. The Friends of the Library, a volunteer organization, also provides substantial support to our program through monthly book sales and other fund raisers. Since our move to this facility in 1993, we have seen tremendous growth, as you can see in the handout I've provided you. In the past five years our circulation has increased 24% and our patron usage has increased 47%. This is amazing!
· In July: Average daily circulation: 313 - Average daily patrons: 221. We provide this public service 6 days/44 hours a week, with a small staff of only 3.5.
· We are open when other City offices are not.
What are we doing to attract and welcome new users?
· We recognized a need to get teens into the Library, so we carved out a little corner that is just for them and provided their own computer. We started a Teen Advisory Board, which has been very successful, and gives input to music, books and magazine purchases. We are just finishing our second annual Teen Summer reading Program (water balloon finale Aug. 25!).
· We send out postcards welcoming our new patrons, giving them our phone #/e-mail address, and asking for suggestions for additional services.
· We recognized the growing interest in Wi-Fi and added that to our list of services in January 05. I think that has been one of the most positive, great PR things that we have done. From Jan/July of this year, we counted 720 Wi-Fi users (and we know we miss many who sit out in the parking lot), which is double for the same period last year.
We are always looking for ways to improve our service, and we are now in the middle of a year long study on the usage our Library gets in the two evenings a week that we are open later. I anticipate that next year we will be extending our Library hours during the summer when the usage is so high.
This summer we have a flip chart set up in the Library for our visitors to make comments on, and lots are about computers:
· Alexandria, VA. Says "No Internet at Grandma & Grandpa's house. Thanks for the access!"
· Phoenix - Thanks so much for Internet use Tucson - Amen!
Here are some other comments from our flip chart:
· Spokane, WA. - This is the best place ever and a life saver.
· New Mexico - Great facility - Didn't expect that from a small town. Priorities are good!
· England - Bright and airy - especially kid's corner. Thank you for e-mail access!
· Tucson, AZ. - Thanks for Internet use & newspapers. Very nice library & librarians
· Colorado Springs, Co. - Great to be back & have such a nice Library here.
· Boulder, Montana - Nice library - better personnel, organization and cleaner than ours. Good job!
· Wichita, Kansas - I'd move here!
· Elk Horn, West V.- Great library!
· Eatonville, WA. - This is a funny library !
You've seen the charts on the increased usage of the Library. With more and more people coming to town, and more and more Library users (8347 Library card holders) wanting more and more materials, this wonderful spacious Library we moved in to 13 years ago isn't so spacious any more.
So what are we doing to address issues of overcrowding?
· We now shelve our fiction on the very top sections of shelving. Nowhere else to go. I actively discard old/unused material, but that goes only so far. We help retrieve books from those shelves.
· We subscribe to 65 periodicals (3067 circulation in 2005) and they are well used, but we have run out of space to store them. We only keep 1 year backlog on hand because of that.
· Wireless/laptop use has increased so much (and it takes away from space in the main part of the library for people to sit) that we have added another wireless hub in the meeting room and opened it for that use when the room is available.
Because of all of this increased use, the Library Board is seriously considering reconfiguring the meeting room to provide more effective Library Service, which could mean in the future, possibly no more large meeting room for the public.
So there you have it: lots of increased business, which we like, and lots of challenges for the future.
