Library to close for 1 day a week
Published 9:22 am Friday, December 5, 2008
Starting this Sunday, the Albert Lea Public Library will close its doors one day a week to patrons.
During a time of economic distress and budget cuts, Director Peggy Havener said the closure will allow the library to put 15 hours of staff time back into the other six days of the week, will allow City Hall to close one full day resulting in utilities savings, will eliminate the custodial costs for Saturdays and Sundays, and will eliminate snowplowing cost for Sundays.
While the library has grown by 40 percent, has added 18 more public access computers, has witnessed attendance of summer reading events go up by 249 percent and has added programs and classes along with the expansion, the library staff has only increased by 10 percent, she said.
“We simply don’t have enough people to offer the services,” Havener said. “It got to the point staff was too stretched.”
When it came time to enter budget requests for 2009, library staff had actually wanted to add another full-time employee to help fill the need for increased programming, she said. But with the way the economy is, the library staff decided that wouldn’t be the right thing to do.
Instead, the staff determined the most realistic option would be to close the library on Sundays and then take a part-time worker up from 18 hours to 25 hours a week, she said. That way more staff time could be spent during the week on programs.
“It was a hard decision,” Havener said. “If we had had another option, we would have taken it in a heartbeat.”
Albert Lea has been one of the only libraries in the area open 12 months a year on Sundays. Several other libraries, such as Austin, are open on Sundays just from Labor Day to Memorial Day, she said.
Here, the staff decided to permanently close on Sundays so that there would be a consistent schedule for library patrons, Havener said. Since the library schedule switched being open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. instead to 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. people are still showing up to the library at 9 a.m.
While libraries are used more in times of economic hardship — because people are checking out books and movies instead of buying them and are dropping Internet access at home — many libraries across the region are having a difficult situation.
What’s different in Albert Lea, however, is that many communities with similar-size libraries have budgets considerably higher. That’s what makes it even harder for the local library.
For example, Albert Lea’s budget this year was $919,000, but in Austin, where the circulation numbers are very similar, the budget was $400,000 more, Havener said.
Regardless, the director noted that most people have been supportive of the decision to close on Sundays, but she doesn’t know how the response will be after the closure actually happens.
They’ve been advertising the closure a month ahead of time, to hopefully give people the chance to get used to the idea, she said.
Heather Meyer, who was attending storytime with her 4-year old daughter, Asha on Thursday, said though the change will affect her family’s schedule, they will just have to plan accordingly.
“I understand everybody needs a break, and I’m just glad we have a library to use,” Meyer said.
During the summers, her family enjoyed having the library open on Sundays because it gave them the chance to stop there when they were already out at a park.
Meyer lives in Maple Island and is about a similar distance away from the Austin and Blooming Prairie libraries.
She noted how beautiful she thought the library has been since it was remodeled.
Sarah Woitas, who was also at the library with a few of her children on Thursday, said the Sunday closing won’t really bother her family as they usually come for storytime and then one or two other times during the week.
For them, their Sundays are filled with church, naptime and then suppertime, she said.
Havener wanted to let people know they can access their accounts online at www.alplonline.org. If people want to renew books or movies they can also do so by phone.
The library’s hours on Mondays through Saturdays have not changed.