Overdue Fines - Love 'Em? Hate 'Em?

Librarians hate to receive complaints. We became librarians because we want to provide people with books, information and other resources. So that's why it's always difficult to receive a complaint about some aspect of our service.

At the library system board's meeting on Monday night, a letter from a customer who was upset about the system's $2 fine rate for video recordings was reviewed. The board agreed to review the policy to see if it still makes sense.

The board is very much aware that the system's video overdue fee is higher than its other fine rates. This is part of the reason why it has remained at $2 for more than 20 years. (Our other fine rates have regularly increased to keep up with the cost of inflation.)

The $2 overdue fee was established over 20 years ago for two reasons:

1. At that time all video recordings were prohibitively expensive. Thus, the library system was concerned about covering any possible losses of public funds that were invested in the collection;

2. In relation to other parts of the collection, the video collection was very small, yet the items were in very high demand by our customers. Thus, a higher fine rate was set to encourage people to return items quickly, making them available for others to borrow.

Since then, the price of most popular videos (now DVDs) has dropped significantly (some of the boxed sets, or recordings on special topics are still expensive). However, costs for processing and maintaining the collection remain high due to the need for sturdy circulating cases, theft control devices and cleaning/repairing machines to keep the materials in working order.

More importantly, the library system still faces the challenge of trying to meet the public’s very high demand for the collection with a relatively small number of titles. Unfortunately, current funding levels do not allow us to purchase as many titles as we really need to meet the public’s ever-increasing interest in all parts of our collection.

Thus, experience tells us that higher fine rates do encourage people to return the items promptly. It also provides us with revenue to purchase more titles and maintain the collection.

This is where financial reality sets in. Last year, the system received about $320,000 in library fines. In our current funding climate, those funds go a long way to providing all kinds of materials for our customers.

There are a number of libraries in the nation that have actually eliminated fines. Frankly, this is something that I think we would love to be able to do; but each year we are finding it more and more difficult to balance our books. So, overdue fines remain an important part of our budget.

As the library system board reviews its video recording fine rate policy early next year, we welcome your comments.

Library Perfume?!?

Now I've seen everything!

Someone has developed library perfume. Called In the Library, I can only hope that this is a joke.

May I suggest that a better, and less expensive, alternative would be to visit your local Cumberland County Library System library?

Library System Board Adopts 2008 Budget

In 2008, the Library System’s Administrative Office is projected to receive $4,772,600 in county and state tax revenue. This is an increase of 1.7%.

Of these funds:

• 61% ($2,904,025) will be distributed directly to member libraries;
• 27% ($1,296,260) will be used to provide library services from the system's administrative Office (for more information on these expenditures, see below);
• 10% ($463,344) will be transferred to the Strategic Development Fund;
• 1.6% ($75,000) will be designated as a Technology Fund for future integrated library system software upgrades;
• Less than 1% (.7% or $33,971) will be transferred to fully fund the system’s 90-Day Contingency Fund.

In addition to the state and county funds listed above ($1,296,260) the administrative office will also receive $184,009 in revenue from federal Library Services and Technology grants, interest revenue and miscellaneous gifts, plus have a carryover balance of $91,661. This brings the total amount of money available for 2008’s administrative office expenditures to $1,572,290.

The adopted 2008 administrative office budget for the library system has six components, totaling $1,523,614 in expenditures:

1. Computer Services — Computer services are largest percentage of the administrative office budget ($510,436 or 31%). These services directly offset member library costs for supporting computers. Costs include staff and computer hardware/software upgrades, maintenance and telecommunications costs for the county’s 300-PC wide area network using Horizon library management software for circulation, cataloging, online public access catalogs, and Internet services.
2. Technical Services — 27% of the budget ($447,671) provides member libraries with 'back-office' support for the purchase, cataloging and processing of library materials. These services directly offset member library costs for staff and bibliographic database support fees. Cataloging services are used by all member libraries.
3. Direct Library Services — 16% of the budget ($262,310) is used to provide direct library services. Costs include health insurance reimbursements for an estimated 29 full-time and 4 part-time staff members, online reference databases, Internet services, library supplies (e.g. library cards, book jackets, labels, audio/DVD cases, etc.), library delivery services, advertising, printing and programming.
4. Administrative and Advocacy Services— 7% of the budget ($117,271) is for administrative and advocacy services. Costs include staff, training, mileage reimbursement and professional services not directly associated with a particular service area. Activities include service planning, coordination and evaluation, bookkeeping, policy development, advocacy and public relations.
5. Staff & Board Training Services — 6% of the budget ($101,835) provides training services for staff and trustees at all member libraries. In 2007, approximately 360 member library staff were trained — most of whom were new employees. Costs include staff, professional collection and training materials, staff development and workshop fees.
6. STAR Outreach Services — 4% of the budget ($69,338) provides STAR Services for about 200 homebound Cumberland County seniors and 55 senior facilities. STAR (Service to Adult Readers) provides free, personalized selection and delivery of large print and audio book library materials. Costs include staff and large print and audio library materials.

For more information on library system finance, including detailed budgets, budget analysis and audits, check out the About Us page on the library system' website..

Rules for Reading & Starting a Blog

Starting a blog may be a bit like starting a new book. You don't know if you are going to like it, but it seems interesting and you want to give it a try.

For most of my life, I've used a rule that my Grandmother gave me about choosing books to read. It was called the 100-page rule. If you get to page 100 of a book, and it hasn't caught your interest, stop reading. There are too many good books out there to waste your time with one that you don't like.

Now, as I've gotten older, my rule has shortened to the 50-page rule...you get the idea. Well today, I've learned of two new rules for reading. One called the "Page 69 Test" that is attributed to Marshall McLuhan. As reported by The Guardian on August 12, 2006, McLuhan recommended that "the browser turn to page 69 of any book and read it. If you like that page, buy the book." (I would amend that to say borrow the book!)

A quick browse of the Internet turned up another similar rule based on reading page 99. There are also a number of worthwhile blogs out there that recommend books and use one of these rules as a guideline:

• Campaign for the American Reader
• The Page 69 Test
• The Page 99 Test

All of this is to say, that like a new book, I'm starting a new blog. I don't know if I will like it or now, or if you will either. I can't even promise that I'll make it to 100 posts or even 50, but I'm giving it a whirl!

I hope to appeal and interest those who love libraries (especially those in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania), love books and all things related, and are interested in trying to keep up with technology.

Let's see what happens.