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Arlington Public Library

The Arlington Years: Arlington Public Library Service Reductions and the FY 2010 Budget

The Arlington Years

Thoughts from County Native and Arlington Public Library Director, Diane Kresh
Dear friends,
As we adjust to the new economic realities that have prompted budget reductions across County government, Arlington Public Library remains committed to providing the best services and collections possible for our customers.
Despite belt tightening and lifestyle changes, those of us fortunate enough to serve the residents of the County will continue the effort to preserve the things that make Arlington a special place to live and work. This is reflected in the budget choices we have made and in the services we continue to provide. 
In brief, Arlington Public Library’s budget recommendations for Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 are: 

• Glencarlyn, Cherrydale and Aurora Hills branches open 3 days per week
• Decreasing the materials budget by $125,000, meaning fewer purchases of books, magazines, newspapers, electronic databases, DVDs and music
• Significantly decreased use of non-permanent staff at all levels
• Increased vacancies within the permanent staff due to frozen positions
• Closing the current Westover branch facility effective July 1, to prepare for the opening of the new Westover facility in fall 2009
• Suggested increases in library fines and fees for printing, lost library cards, overdue materials and interlibrary loan mailings

None of these decisions were easy and at this stage, the FY 2010 budget is a proposal.

There are many opportunities to make your opinion known. In addition to the public hearings to be held by the Arlington County Board in late March, the Library is scheduling open “town meetings” at Central Library and each of our branches except Plaza.  All meetings will start at 7 p.m. except Aurora Hills, when I will speak at 7:45. Here is the schedule. PLEASE NOTE NEW TIME: I will speak at the Aurora Hills meeting (hosted by the AH Civic Association) at 8:30 p.m.:
• March 4, Cherrydale
• March 10, Glencarlyn
• March 11, Aurora Hills (new time–8:30 p.m in senior center adjacent to library)
• March 17, Westover
• March 18, Central (Auditorium)
• March 31, Shirlington
• April 1, Columbia Pike

As someone who grew up in Arlington and benefited from its first-rate Library, I want to “do it all” for this system.  And yet we can’t given the current budget predicament. 
So the staff and I chose to recommend doing the next best thing, which is to fund our programs and services in the most cost-effective way possible so we can continue to fill shelves with relevant materials, entertain children with storytimes and help neighbors get back on their feet with free computers, Internet access and job-seeking resources.
Our proposed hours of service across the system may change—to enable us to staff where service demands are greatest—but our commitment to the community is unchanged.
Please take advantage of the “comments” link below to send me your questions and suggestions. I will respond under your remarks to keep the dialogue going. And I look forward to meeting you and speaking with you in person at one of the seven open “town meetings” mentioned above.
Over to you…

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. COMMENTS ON THE ORIGINAL POST:A question and an answer posted on a previous blog item:Question: "Where does the statement "These are the three libraries with the lowest circulation rates – Aurora Hills (4.9%), Cherrydale (4.4%) and Glencarlyn (2.3%)" comes from? More importantly, what are the numbers for the other branches and Central?" — Ralph Silberman—————————————————————-Answer: The circulation numbers cited are from Fiscal Year 2008 statistics, the most recent complete set of numbers we have. Here is the entire breakdown:Central= 41.6 percentShirlington= 8.4 percentWestover= 7.5 percentColumbia Pike= 6.9 percentAurora Hills= 4.9 percentCherrydale= 4.4 percentGlencarlyn= 2.3 percentPlaza Branch Library operates on a unique schedule without evening and weekend hours so its circulation numbers were below one percent for FY 2008, the first year of its operation.Because patrons can renew materials online, the Library website circulation was 23.1 percent, higher than any physical location except Central.Posted by: Diane Kresh, Director, Arlington Public Library | February 27, 2009 at 02:44 PM Does the circulation rate mean the percentage of that library's collection that is in circulation at any given time? If so, I wonder if it under-represents a small library's usage. For example, the Cherrydale collection is small so we frequently put copies of books from another library on hold, and have them sent to Cherrydale for us to check out.Posted by: Cindy Salavantis | February 27, 2009 at 03:03 PM The percentage of circulations for a branch is the total number of circulations transacted at that branch divided by the total number of system circulations for FY 2008.Books sent to Cherrydale to fill holds (regardless of the owning branch) are counted as Cherrydale transactions if checked out to the borrower at Cherrydale.Posted by: Diane Kresh, Director, Arlington Public Library | February 27, 2009 at 04:00 PM It's very interesting that the Shirlington figures are so high since in the 1998 exercise it was nearly closed. I find that to be a very good indicator of how much the Aurora Hills branch has been allowed to deteriorate. If we made some improvements to the Aurora Hills facility and programs, I suspect that the rates would also increase.Seems that cutting hours to three days a week is but an interim step to eventual elimination of the three branches. If the County confuses neighbors with very limited hours, they'll stop coming because they'll never know when the library is open.Reducing the library to three days is also counter to what all the news reports and anecdotal evidence indicate. People are turning to libraries even more as the economy gets worse.Finally, the savings are but a blip in relation to the whole county budget.Posted by: Nicholas Giacobbe | February 27, 2009 at 04:51 PM The rest of the comments can be found here:http://arlingtonclimateblog.typepad.com/thearlingtonyears/2009/02/arlington-public-library-service-reductions-and-the-fy-2010-budget.html

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