Memorandum:
From: Mark Arend, Interim Assistant
Director
Subject: Report of System activities
The following is an update of activities since our last meeting. I would be happy to provide further details at our meeting, or feel free to give me a call or send an email in advance.
This is another difficult budget year. Local governments continue to be squeezed between strong public sentiment for no tax increases and high increases for utilities and health insurance premiums.
The next two or three years will be difficult for libraries. Library use continues to increase; many of our libraries are seeing record levels of use and the rate of increase doesn’t show signs of leveling out. Increasingly technical-savvy patrons are demanding a broader range of online resources. At the same time some municipal officials may view libraries as a non-essential service that can be cut.
Although most counties are requesting county departments to submit reduced or no-increase budget requests the library directors in all counties decided to submit funding requests higher than last year for these reasons:
The current status is as follows:
Fond du Lac County – The membership agreement and plan were forwarded to the County Executive and the County Agriculture, Education, and Extension Committee. When Fond du Lac County joined Winnefox the libraries received a reimbursement of only 70% of their cost of serving rural residents. When Fond du Lac County joined Winnefox it agreed that it would slowly increase library funding each year. Unfortunately, that plan has not been followed and this year the libraries received a reimbursement of 78% of their cost of serving rural residents; had library funding increased at the planned rate each year they would be receiving 90% reimbursement this year. The County Executive has said he hopes to increase reimbursement to at least 80% for 2005.
Green Lake County – The Green Lake County Finance Committee again requested that county departments budget a 3% decrease in spending for 2005. A second consecutive year of decreased funding would put Green Lake County funding below the 3-year-average Maintenance of Effort requirements of Section 43.15(2) of statutes and could jeopardize county membership in Winnefox Library System. The county librarians decided to request an increase of 11.64% over last year. This was endorsed by the Agriculture, Extension, and Education Committee and forwarded to the Finance committee. The Finance Committee recommended an increase of $15,000, or 6.95%, over this year.
Marquette County – Marquette County librarians requested a 5% increase over 2004. The Rural Planning Committee approved an increase of 3%, or $4,112 over this year. The Finance Committee will be meeting in mid-October.
Waushara County – For 2005 Waushara County librarians requested a funding increase of 3.%, or $10,067 over this year. This has been endorsed by the Library Services Committee and referred to the Finance Committee. The Finance Committee will be meeting in early October.
Winnebago County – The total request for 2005 funding for Winnebago County
Libraries is $1,900,884 or a 5.25% increase over 2004. Of that amount, $268,286
is for major facility requests and is an increase of $58,774 over 2004 due
primarily to the addition of facility costs for the new Menasha Public Library to
the formula. The increase for operational reimbursements represent only a
2.26% increase over 2004. The Plan and funding request was approved
unanimously by the Agriculture, Education and Extension Committee and the
County Executive has also agreed to support the Plan and requested funding.
County Planning: You may remember that in 2001 the librarians in Green Lake, Marquette, and Waushara spent time formulating service priorities & goals for the following 5 years. I continue to work with the librarians in each county as they evaluate their progress towards reaching the objectives set out in the plans and helping set goals for the next year or so.
Although the Fond du Lac county plan does not expire until
the end of 2005, the library directors and the County Education, Extension & Agriculture Committee have mutually agreed
that because of changing circumstances it should be updated this year. I have been working with the library
directors to revise the plan and it was submitted to the county Education,
Agriculture, and Extension Education Committee in mid-August. The Committee will be meeting with the
librarians soon to review the Plan.
Library Day @ Galloway House Program: Over 1,300 readers and their families attended the Library Day @ Galloway House Program in early August. In addition to the activities already there we brought in children’s performer Randy Peterson, Laura Ingalls Wilder performer Pat Day, a petting zoo, blackpowder shooting, and The Balloon Kid. I will have pictures and attendance statistics at our meeting. A few news articles are included as board report exhibits.
Free CD Giveaway: You may have read news reports of the multi-state class action suit against CD producers and distributors which resulted in libraries around the country receiving free CDs. Although the articles tended to focus on the number of duplicate CDs that libraries received, on the whole this has been a benefit for libraries. Duplicate CDs and titles that libraries chose not to add to their collections are being traded between libraries or sold, with the proceeds used to enhance library music collections.
WCTS News: On 17 August we held a special event in conjunction with the regular bi-monthly WCTS materials review meeting: a Wisconsin Publishers Bookfair. It was a successful experiment, with a half-dozen publishers displaying materials. About half of the Winnefox libraries sent staff and several non-Winnefox libraries and members of the public attended as well.
The Collection Enhancement Grant continues to show results. To date, over 500 new Books on CD, videos, and music CDs have hit the shelves in Green Lake, Marquette, and Waushara County libraries.