In its first full year in operation at the new building, the Olds Municipal Library continues to grow in popularity, library board members heard at the organization's annual general meeting on Wednesday. But utility costs and custodial costs also increased beyond what staff budgeted for in 2011, primarily because the space is much larger than the previous building the library occupied.
The library had a net deficiency of $21,608 in cash transfers over what was budgeted in 2011, partly due to higher than anticipated utility costs and a GST rebate it has yet to receive. As a result of the higher utility costs, the library has switched providers to Mountain View Power in order to keep costs down.
“A bigger space clearly requires more maintenance to keep it up. And of course with more patrons, there's more traffic, there's more ongoing work to make sure that we maintain the library's new structure as much as possible. And then as we all know, just a casual glance at our own power bill shows that utilities are going up and the library has to accommodate that as well,” said Phillip Watland, the board's outgoing chair, noting that because the board dipped into reserves the past two years to balance the budget, a major priority in the future will be to rebuild those reserves.
“This was a major piece of work of the board. This will be a challenge going forward,” he said.
In presenting the library's annual report, Lesley Winfield, the library's manager, said all statistical categories, from library visits to computer usage, increased in 2011 over the previous year.
Library visits increased by 49 per cent over 2010 to 66,226, while interlibrary loans increased by 18 per cent to over 45,000 items both borrowed from other libraries in the Parkland Regional Library system and lent to those libraries.
The total number of items circulated at the OML in 2011 increased by 25 per cent to 106,820. Visits to the library's website increased 29 per cent to 139,763 while the number of times people accessed the library's expanded computer terminals to surf the Internet increased 100 per cent to 20,968.
Because the OML is one of the largest libraries in the PRL network, it has also been increasingly investing in e-books. The number of e-books available at the library increased 258 per cent in 2011 over the previous year to 2,837. The library has also recently received a donation from the Olds Rotary Club, allowing the library to purchase e-readers that people can borrow from the library.
“We have decided to dedicate some of our resources that we would maybe normally have spent on books and buy e-books as well, knowing that that's something that people are wanting and something that people are interested in,” Winfield said.
There were 2,967 people who used the library in 2011 to take various programs as part of a commitment to lifelong learning, one of the library's three main priorities as set out in its three-year strategic plan.
“People are not just coming to the library any more to check out a book and leave. People are coming to use the computer … to take a program, to read to their child…. There's all kinds of reasons people are coming now and it's not just for traditional books,” Winfield said.
A new slate of directors was chosen at the meeting, including Monica Andrew assuming the chair's position. Janey Olsen was selected as vice-chair, Watland was selected for the secretary position and Linda Svailing was selected as treasurer.
Because several board members' terms expire in October, the library is looking for interested people to join the board. Anyone wanting more information on the duties involved in becoming a board member can contact Winfield at 403-556-6460.
"(Re-building reserves) was a major piece of work of the board. This will be a challenge going forward."Phillip Watland, outgoing board chair, OML board
