PVLD Director's Blog

Tough times and the future of libraries

A couple of days ago Eric Hellman had a great post on his Go to Hellman blog about how the huge financial challenges being faced by public libraries across the country (check out the very scary list of library budget cuts at the end of the post), and the way that libraries respond to them, may be compromising our ability to make the changes necessary to survive and thrive in a future where the way that people interact with books and information is fundamentally changing.

I love his comment that

"The public library of the future has to stop being about collections and start being about helping people and communities. Google can't be a physical place where people offer access, assistance and education for the internet and the information it accesses; local public libraries CAN be.   It's these "new" directions that will attract renewed public support and funding into the future. But library directors struggling to deal with budget cuts will find it hard to also reposition their services to meet the needs of an increasingly internet-based society."

Hellman is particularly concerned about the impact of cutting library hours, noting that

"One argument for cutting hours might be that the visibility of these cuts makes it easier to restore funding when the economic cycle turns. This may have been true in the past, but I think that the funding that goes away this year will never come back. The way most people access information has changed profoundly since the last economic downturn. A library that reduces its hours is just training its public to meet information needs elsewhere, and that public isn't going to rush back. The library's funding will get cut again and again, and eventually it will have to close its doors." (emphasis mine)

Here at PVLD as we wrestle with a budget outlook that remains gloomy and the ongoing need to make difficult choices about how we spend our time and our money, and as we work with the Peninsula Friends of the Library to grow community support (including financial support) for the library, I found this blog post a timely reminder that the models of the past may not work for the future.

  

Libraries Are Good for Business

Late last year PVLD launched the Zerunyan Center for Business, Entrepreneurship and Community Development , intended to be the hub of our services for the business community.  It is also PVLD's first foray into public/private partnerships, in this case between the Library District, local City Council Member Frank Zerunyan, and local corporate and individual sponsors.

The Center is still small, and we have had our share of growing pains as we work through all of the issues associated with bringing new partners with new perspectives (and in some cases a lack of understanding of what we already do) into "our" library world, integrating operation of the center with other library activities and programs, integrating fundraising for the Center with our other fundraising efforts, and identifying which programs and services are most needed by our local business community.

At the same time it has been very rewarding to see how the community, and particularly the business community, has responded.  Apart from enabling the library to expand its services, the Center has also been a means of attracting new library supporters and donors who see (maybe for the first time) that the library is doing something that is directly relevant for them.

I have been wrestling with both how to work through the growing pains and capitalize on the opportunities that the Zerunyan Center presents, so I was excited to come across this Kiplinger article on how "Libraries Are Building Business Buzz" on Friday. 

Apart from great ideas for services for business, it was interesting that the library examples in the article all seemed to be primarily publicly funded, albeit with support from donors.  None of the business centers seemed to be the kind of comprehensive public/private partnership that we have envisioned...no wonder we are having growing pains!

Growing pains aside, I was pleased to see a national publication like Kiplinger's confirm that we are on the right track as we grow our services for business.  In addition to the Zerunyan Center with its dedicated space, collection of business-related materials, and planned outreach programs we offer a variety of business-oreinted online databases; "quiet study" rooms that are used by local business people for small meetings; rent our larger conference and community rooms for use by businesses and business organizations as well as the non-profit community; Notary, scanning, copying and other services of interest to the business community; and are about to launch a new business networking website for our local community.

The article gave me renewed energy for tackling our Business Center issues and continuing to grow our business services...a shot in the arm at just the right time!

Wasn't that a party!

Saturday night the Peninsula Center Library glowed as we celebrated "80 Years of Magic" at the Palos Verdes Library District.  From cocktails in the library to sit-down dinner and entertainment on the library roof over 500 guests had a truly magical time.  Many of our guests had not been in the library in years, if ever, so it was fun to show them all that we offer. 

We're still crunching the numbers, but we think it was a financial success,too!

The event would not have been possible without many, many hours of hard work by the Event Committee under the leadership of Cc Yu; library staff (especially Merna Marshall, Charles Crouse and the Facilities Team, and our IT staff); and dozens of other volunteers. 

We also were fortunate to have sponsors and advertisers  who generously supported the event.

A huge thank you to everyone who contributed!

Volunteer Coordinator Dori Medina put together this slide show of the event.  Enjoy!

Imagine a community without a library

"What would our community be like if there were no public library?"  That is a question we have been asking community members as part of a Strategic Plan-driven project to understand community perceptions of the library and use this input to better position our services, programs, and messages.

Thankfully here in Palos Verdes it is a hypothetical question, but I was appalled to learn that for the citizens of Philadelphia it may soon become a reality, according to the website of the Philadelphia Free Library System.

I loved Cory Doctorow's post expressing his dismay over at BoingBoing.  What a great articulation of what public libraries offer communities and society as a whole, and what a tragedy that some communities are willing to give this up....

Trading off instead of trading up

One of the challenges we've been facing here at PVLD is the conflict between growing workloads and shrinking resources.  Some of the workload growth is beyond our control - like the recession-driven increases in library usage.  Some is a result of having an energetic, enthusiastic, and ambitious staff who take the initiative to develop new programs and services.  Some is the result of the fact that scarce resources  can actually create work - for example, in times of healthy budgets for books you can pretty much order anything that sounds reasonable without a lot of thought or analysis, but when money is tight you need to spend more time and effort ensuring that every purchase decision delivers optimum value.

In any case, it is becoming increasingly obvious that we can't continue to do everything with our available staff and resources!  This is forcing some tough decisions about what we need to give up, decisions made tougher because the staff are so passionate about what they do and so reluctant to ratchet back services to the community.

That's why I thought this line from the It's All Good Blog was so apt -

People are thinking differently about their choices today--no longer trading up but trading off.

That's a great description of the kinds of choices we are being forced to make right now - at the library but also in our personal lives. 

It's been a while since we've had to ask "If I do this, what else can't I do?" and here at PVLD we're finding it pretty difficult. 

We'd love some feedback about what is really important to you as a library user, so as we make these choices it's with your interests in mind....just leave a comment on this blog!

Smarter Giving - anyone can be a philanthropist

PVLD's proeprty tax revenue base only covers about 88% of our operating expenses, and the funds raised by the Peninsula Friends of the Library enable us to sustain a level of library service well beyond what we could achieve with tax revenues alone.

Fundraising in a community like Palos Verdes can be challenging given the large number of local non-profit organizations seeking funding (I think I counted 24 of them at the inaugural Non-Profit Roundtable hosted by the Chamber of Commerce this week!)....and these are just the very local organizations.  A great deal of financial support also flows off the Peninsula to alma maters, and to regional and national organizations.

Last year several non-profit organizations dedicated to enhancing the quality of life in our community (the Peninsula Friends of the Library, the Peninsula Education Foundation, the Palos Verdes Art Center, the Palos Verdes Land Conservancy, H.E.L.P., Caring House, and the Norris Center for Performing Arts) came together not to solicit funds, but to educate community members about how to make the most effective use of their donated time and dollars.

The speaker was Ed Long, current Library Trustee and co-founder of the nationally recognized H.E.L.P. organization that provides low-cost legal and financial advice to older adults and their families.  Ed is extremely knowledgeable on the topic of how to be a "smarter giver" and a terrific speaker to boot.

Over 50 people attended the first sessions at the Peninsula Center Library last November, and the feedback was terrific.

Next week the group is sponsoring another Smarter Giving seminar on Wednesday, May 6 at  4:00PM at Ridgecrest Intermediate School in Rancho Palos Verdes.  As an added bonus, 35 lucky participants will receive a copy of the book Inspired Philanthropy to help them plan their future giving.

No sales pitches, no solicitations...just a wealth of information to help you make meaningful contributions to worthy causes, even in these difficult times! 

Now Available! Online Donations to the Peninsula Friends of the Library

You can now support the Palos Verdes Library District by making an online donation (using credit card or Paypal) to the Peninsula Friends of the Library! 

I'm thrilled because this comes after several years of discussion about how best to implement online/credit card giving, and also because a chance encounter that I had with a community member led to our first (and very generous!) online gift only a few days after the online donation capability went live.

At the end of a week where we further reduced our 2009/2010 property tax revenue forecast (88% of our budget) in the face of re-assessments and increased delinquencies and worked on a strategic plan that will require funds beyond what our normal revenues provide even in good years, it's great to give library users and community members another way to support the library....we need it!

To our first online donor - Thank You!

Budget challenges

We are putting the finishing touches on the PVLD "mid-year" budget, which will be presented to the Board of Trustees next week.  PVLD operates on a July 1-June 30 fiscal year, and each January we take a look at our actual revenues and expenses for the first half of the year and then make adjustments to our budget to reflect any circumstances that were unforeseen when the budget was approved the previous spring.  We also update our forecast for the next fiscal year to give us a more realistic sense of what our financial future looks like.

The good news is that despite some pluses and minuses in individual budget line items, we are forecasting that we will end the current fiscal year with a very slightly larger than anticipated surplus thanks to some great work by the staff to cut costs and to some unexpected grants and other income.  This will allow us to fund all necessary capital maintenance projects this year and next.

The bad news is that as we look to 2009/2010 we have cut back our forecast of anticipated property tax revenue and are facing inflationary cost increases in a number of areas.  The result is that we are currently facing a projected deficit of $124,000 in 09/10, will barely meet our minimum reserve policy, and will not have enough to fund necessary capital maintenance projects in 2010/2011.  And even if the economy and housing markets improve in the next year or so, the current decline in the stock market almost certainly means higher pension costs in 2011/2012 and beyond.

On the (somewhat) brighter side, coming up with $124,000 in additional revenues and/or cost savings for next year won't be easy, but it's less than 2% of our total budget...and we are much better off than many other organizations.

Recently I attended a meeting of about 25 Library Directors from the greater Los Angeles area, most of whom reported that they are being asked by their jurisdictions (unlike PVLD and Buena Park most public libraries are part of city or county government) to cut their budgets by anywhere from 5% to 15%....targets that are almost impossible to achieve without significant cuts to staff and services.

That was followed by a conversation last Friday with State Librarian Susan Hildreth, who was at work despite the fact that like other State employees she and all of the other State Library staff were technically on furlough and not being paid.

At lunchtime today I heard our local School Superintendent, Walker Williams, talk about the huge budget cuts the School District is facing in the current fiscal year, which have already resulted in the issuing of layoff notices to many of the non-classroom staff including all of the library and technology aides in the elementary schools, with many more layoffs to come.  

The grim news from the School District was followed by seeing  this notice on the Buena Park Library District blog  announcing reductions in employee pay and benefits this fiscal year.

My conclusion?  Based on what we know today we certainly have a challenge ahead of us, but it's not an insurmountable one.  This spring we're working on a new strategic plan, which will certainly include finding ways to raise revenues and making careful choices about how we spend our money...and knowing how creative our employees are I think we'll find a way to close the budget gap without significantly reducing services and without making employees bear the burden in their paychecks.

Of course if the State decides to "borrow" our property tax revenues as a way of solving their budget mess, or the impact of the stock market decline on our pension costs comes sooner than 2010/11, then the challenge will be much greater and all bets are off.  In the meantime we'll be doing verything we can to negotiate these very tricky waters.

2008 - What a year!

I've been spending some time today sorting through the piles on my desk trying to create some order before I head off on vacation.  There is nothing worse than coming back from time off to a chaotic office....and somehow it is even worse when the return to work coincides with the start of a new year.

As I've waded through the mounds of paper I've been thinking about what our staff and volunteers have accomplished in the space of 12 months and it is truly amazing - 

We launched a new website, online catalog and Integrated Library System (the software that supports all of our library operations from purchasing books to issuing library cards to checking items in and out).  Any one of these would be a major project on their own, and to do them all at the same time is a real accomplishment and required the coordinated efforts of people from every department!

Our IT department upgraded all of the public computers across PVLD, added additional workstations for the library catalog and databases, increased our Internet bandwidth using a new service provider, installed several new computer servers including our first using the Linux operating system, brought our public printing services in-house to improve customer service.

The Digital Services department not only led the implementation of the new website but implemented new online services including the Value Line and Morningstar investment services, the Brainfuse online homework help service, Mango Languages, and more.  The Digital Services team also gave PVLD a presence on Facebook and Twitter, helped the Peninsula Friends of the Library establish their web pages and blog, worked with other PVLD departments to establish their department blogs, and began planning for the next versions of the website and online catalog which will go live in 2009.

Staff at all locations worked hard to improve our library collections by removing dated materials and reorganizing various areas to make them more accessible to and easily browsed by our customers.  New reference sections were created at both the Malaga Cove and Miraleste Libraries, staff at Malaga Cove began the creation of a separate biography section (a project that will be replicated at the other libraries), paperbacks were added to the library catalog, the music CD section at Peninsula Center was reorganized by type of music instead of an esoteric numbering system, we added collections of video games for circulation, and more.  This doesn't sound like much but it involves a LOT of work!

We sustained all of our popular ongoing programs and events from story times to book groups at all libraries to the Malaga Cove history discussion group, chess clubs, and origami club to the record-breaking Summer Reading program to holiday music concerts at all of the libraries to the monthly foreign films in partnership with Chadwick school to the annual Art in our Library art show.  As if that weren't enough we added lots of new programs and events including -

• An antiques appraisal event at Malaga Cove
• "Tuesdays at the Annex" programs for older adults
• "Mondays at Miraleste" teen programs at the Miraleste Library
• Expansion of the popular American Girls Teas to all libraries with a total attendance of over 520 people this year!
• Introduction of "Play Dates at the Library" at Malaga Cove
• A Chinese story time and other kids' programs in partnership with the South Bay Chinese School
• The first annual Artisan Faire at Malaga Cove
• Scrapbooking Clubs at both Malaga Cove and Miraleste
• Lots of exciting activities for teens at the Annex
• "Web 2.0" classes on blogging, Facebook, and Flickr
• And more!

In addition to handling all of the set ups and clean ups associated with these programs and keeping all of our libraries clean and in great shape, the Facilities Department also carried out several enhancement projects at Malaga Cove including electrical upgrades, installation of a new fire and security alarm system, restoration of the magazine and newspaper reading area (thanks to a generous gift from the Palos Verdes Woman's Club) and refurbishment of the Tower Room (thanks to a generous gift from volunteers Pat and Bill Foltz).  Facilities Manager Erich Widmann also worked with our architect and staff to develop schematic level designs for the proposed expansion and renovation of the Miraleste Library.

The Passport Services team introduced Saturday passport hours as a way of providing more convenient hours for families and generating additional revenue, and are taking turns working Saturdays to support this service.

The Friends of the Library made many improvements to their operations, including hiring their first employee - part-time Campaign Coordinator Georgia Case.  They also improved their online presence through new web pages and a blog, launched their first ever end-of-year appeal to members and donors, introduced a Friends membership card and changed from a calendar-year to a rolling 12-month membership period, seeded an endowment fund, did a lot of planning for the capital campaign for upgrades to the Malaga Cove and Miraleste Libraries, and continued to grow their revenues from book sales and the library shop.

We particpated in a number of State Library initiatives.  Branch Manager Jennifer Addington and Customer Service/Circulation Manager Eve Wittenmyer were selected to attend the first ever Eureka Leadership Institute for emerging California library leaders, making PVLD one of only 3 libraries across the state (and the only small library system) to have two staff members selected.  Adult Services Manager Debra Petersen and Librarian Louise Beebe successfully applied for a $20,000 grant to develop services for Baby Boomers who want to start or grow a business, the Young Readers Department received a second $5,000 grant to continue the Early Learning for Families program at the Malaga Cove Library, and Coordinator of Volunteer Services Dori Medina was selected  to serve on an advisory panel for a statewide initiative to improve volunteer engagement with libraries.

Staff, volunteers, and library supporters successfully mobilized to protest the threat that the State would "borrow" local property tax revenues (which make up 87% of PVLD's budget). 

...And while all of that was going on we served the over 650,000 people who passed through our doors and checked out 845,000 items!

Whew!  What a tribute to our amazing staff, and to the volunteers who give 28,000 hours of their time to PVLD each year!  And just wait until you see what is in store for 2009....

I'll be on vacation through New Year's Day, so this will be my last post until then.  Best wishes for the holiday season!  

 

Tough Times for Libraries in Tough Times

I've posted a few times about how busy libraries get when times get tough.  It seems that every blog posting and magazine article on saving money includes a reminder of all of the free resources that are available from your local public library.

A few days ago I posted about how use of our PVLD libraries has grown over the past year, and Tuesday evening NBC Nightly News ran this story about the challenges faced by libraries nationwide as we try to serve more people with tighter budgets - 

Things aren't as dire financially for PVLD as they are for some of the libraries featured in the story, but we still face some significant challenges. Local property taxes make up nearly 88% of our budget, and although the housing market on the Palos Verdes Peninsula has held up better than in most areas we still expect our revenues to be flat at best.  State funding typically makes up only 1% of our budget, but given the current fiscal crisis in Sacramento we will be lucky to see any of that money.  Revenues from our Passport Service have also declined as fewer people plan international travel, and falling interest rates mean we are generating much lower investment income.  Couple the revenue challenges with expenses that are rising due to both inflation and increased library use and it is going to be a challenging few years.

In this environment the support we receive from the community via the Peninsula Friends of the Library  is even more important than ever.  Without the support of the Friends the community would not enjoy our array of events and activities including the Summer Reading program, special events for kids and teens; free concerts, movies, and more.  We would also not be able to keep the Peninsula Center Library open on Sunday afternoons (and Sundays are our busiest days on a per hour basis), and could not have gotten the Annex off the ground. If having access to outstanding library services is important to you, consider joining or making a gift to the Friends!