Cutting costs where it hurts the least

By ANDY GOODELL

OSKALOOSA — They looked at their finances and decided some changes needed to be made.

The Oskaloosa Public Library is taking several major cost-saving steps. This comes after the library’s fiscal year 2009 budget increased by approximately $18,000 in order to meet rising operational costs.

After hearing a recommendation from their finance committee, the library board decided to withdraw $20,000 from invested funds to balance the proposed fiscal year budget for 2010.

“This was a stop-gap to give us some time,” said library director Suzann Holland.

Since the library’s fiscal year 2010 budget does not include extra money, both the library’s staff and board were forced to explore money-saving options. Numerous measures are being taken to save money at the library, but there are two in particular Holland said will have the greatest financial benefit.

At a yearly savings up to $9,000, library employees are looking into an “open source integrated library system,” Holland said. This is the system by which the library tracks its cataloging and circulation.

Currently, the public library shares an integrated library system with William Penn University’s Wilcox Library. The public library spends more than $10,000 per year paying their share of maintenance costs for this system.

The new system offers free software and annual support fees around $2,500 a year.

“This is our software backbone,” noted Holland.

Another important step the Oskaloosa Public Library is taking to save some cash is literally in the facility’s air. Holland said the library’s heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) monitoring system is “obsolete” and that it is creating a great deal of energy inefficiency in the building.

Holland said the system’s 13-year-old monitoring system “completely failed” Thursday of this past week.

A new system is expected to save the library up to $10,000 annually.

The library board has also appointed an Operations Efficiency Committee to help with their cost-savings plans.

“It’s more than just one person working on it,” explained Holland. “We’re pretty confident. We’ve been conservative in our estimates, so there’s no shortfall.”

Holland said none of these cost-savings measures will impact library patrons’ experience.

“We’re trying to look behind the scenes for our changes,” said Holland.

This is especially important to consider because of the fact that Oskaloosa’s library, along with most other public libraries, are finding that more and more people are walking through their doors. In one month alone this year, the Oskaloosa Public Library saw a 17 percent increase in patron visits and a 15 percent increase in item checkouts over the previous year.

“I don’t feel like I’m alone,” said Holland. “All public libraries are struggling to deal with an influx of patrons. We’re trying to serve more people with less money.”

Having less money is exactly the reason why a lot of people are starting to turn to their local libraries, said Holland. She said many people are dropping their home Internet service and stopping magazine subscriptions in favor of getting them for free at the library. She said people are checking out books they once would have purchased, as well.

“They’re starting to realize what a bargain the library is,” said Holland. “They’re making better use of their taxpayer support of the library.”

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Herald City Editor Andy Goodell can be reached at news2@oskyherald.com

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