Cleveland Library at I-40 Exit 312 on N.C. HWY 42 W, Garner, received several offers this week, which could assure the increase of the Cleveland Library collection from 4th in Johnston County at 25,000 books to 70,000 books with a value nearing $2.5 million within 12 months, passing the size of the 82 year old Clayton collection. The only match needed for this generosity would be that the community would covering any operating costs. The books would be arriving weekly, to avoid overwhelming the start-up operation. With library budgets being gutted and libraries across the country closing, Cleveland Library is continuing the tradition of Basic Needs Ministry in attempting the impossible. The six-year old community charity used volunteers and hidden local assets to provide $18 million in basic benefits: free clothing, free food, discounts on prescriptions, a computer lab, and now is able to loan 25,000 books as a free public library. Despite grants of $20,000 for the computer lab and the lurking promise of $2.5 million in free books for the community, every month brings stress and is a struggle to see how the rent and utilities can be paid. The influx of books would permit an increase in book sales in the community as the library would be able to start an aggressive book upgrade program and be on target with accepted library guidelines for annual purges in the 10-15% range. Additional space and the additional donations would allow more duplicates to assure a shorter waiting time for popular books. The books per resident ratio for Cleveland Township residents would grow from the 2008 county level of 1.7 per person, past the current Cleveland Township 3.4, and level off at 6.4. The increased collection size would permit an expansion of services to the residents in nearby areas without stripping the shelves. The library has been approached about loaning services for residents living north into Wake County and south through Four Oaks. Accepting these generous offers would require many more volunteers and some unique approaches to shelving, facility space, and fundraising. The community would have to cover the costs of thousands of bar codes, library cards, and genre labels. The library would either need to put seven 40' book mobiles in service at staged areas, each with volunteer staff, or secure 4-8,000 additional square feet of building space (cost $28,000-$56,000 a year plus utilities and insurance, etc.). The library's planned computer upgrade to Koha, which is scheduled for this summer, will be capable of handling hundreds of thousands of books. The library staff has been drawing on the collective wisdom and experience of the members of the North Carolina Library Association, the American Library Association, librarians serving in various state government positions, and both professional staff and students from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science. The question is whether we have community demand and support for the increased level of service? We've got a decision to make within a week, weigh in.
Why does the Cleveland library need to be it's own entity rather than joining and working with the Johnston Co. library system?
Our mission is to provide people's basic needs. 1. Let's applaud the women, the collective hero of the Johnston County Library System. Please review the history of the libraries in Johnston County. If I read correctly, one of the libraries had a soft start on a shelf in the back of a pharmacy, but more importantly it appeared that each library was started by a call from the women and Woman's Clubs in the community. 2. The Public Library of Johnston County and Smithfield evolved 60 years after a small library was operating inside Hood's Drug Store (1903). The Woman's Club was credited with bringing about the Smithfield Library. In the 1960s, the Town-County Library was born. Can't find a town of Cleveland or a Woman's Club, but the women are bringing us a lot of books. 3. Hocutt-Ellington Memorial Library, Clayton, was started when the Women's Club put out a call for book donations in 1927. It received 600 books and popped opened. By 2008 it held 61,000 books and 2,400 books on tape. That is an 81 year net growth of 14 books per week. It circulates 144,000 items annually. It advertises 38 1/2 hours weekly. Cleveland Library in seven months has acquired 25,000 books and 1,000 videos (NO FEE LOANS) and is asking whether it should go to 70,000 books in a year. We've been working hard for six years, including handling and placing books, and are willing to continue working hard and try and shave 80 years off the process of building the collection. 4. Unless I overlooked some history notes, Johnston County did not start and build one free general interest public library as a county initiative between 1746 and 2009. 5. How many of the seven general public library buildings were paid for by the county from the ground up? 6. The county library staff gave us the figures of new book acquisition at $35 per volume and said they had no budget to assist in the start of a library collection. Last time we went to a commissioners meeting and asked the commissioners for any money, we heard the same thing they told the fire companies - "Sell more chicken." 7. The county library staff said that any library starting in the county that accepted book donations, would have to pay for their own cataloging, since the county had no staff or money to cover the cataloging costs. Cleveland Library has been working on computer assisted cataloging and has three experienced catalog volunteers. 8. The county library staff said Cleveland Township would need about 15-16,000 books to start a collection (about 1 per resident, the math on the cost 15,500 x $35 = $542,500). Cleveland Library already has over 25,000 books (calculated at $875,000) and 1,000 videos on VHS and DVD and has a chance to get to 70,000 books in a year (calculated value $2,450,000). The county library has not been able to keep up with the population growth over the past 20 years. Where would the county get the money for the books and Cleveland Township currently has no tax authority? 9. The services provided by the county are many and may be available to Cleveland Library after we build a library to county standards and pay all the bills. We will be allowed to share: bookmobile service (press release said service was not assured after July 2009), loans between collections, union book catalog, and book drop off service at any library. 10. The county staff said the software could run in the thousands per year to buy and then to run the card catalog. We currently have an internationally recognized open source software program in beta test in Clayton, which will be migrated to UNC-CH. 11. Cleveland Library has 40,000 labels and bar codes, with over 15,000 on the books. 12. The Cleveland Library is promised over 500' of new shelving (you know-boards and nails - we're really basic) in May and June. 13. The Cleveland Library is negotiating for about 1,600 sq. ft. of temporary additional sorting and storage space. 14. The Cleveland Library is negotiating for remodeling of a 40' bookmobile to hold an additional 6-12,000 books. The Cleveland Library would consider working with the Johnston County system, when the system considers working with Cleveland Township. Like the other libraries in Johnston County, which were built locally and are controlled locally, we are setting the stage and will consider working closer with the county system in the future.
"The question is whether we have community demand and support for the increased level of service? We've got a decision to make within a week, weigh in." Before spending the money, I would have to ask if the prior statistics on library usage supports the spending. More or less, do the statistics show an increase or decrease in the use of our current library system over the past 5 years. In what I could find, the circulation keeps rising and falling for the past 5 years. plstats.htm Can you fill us in on those statistics, and maybe how to understand them, so we can make an educated decision? I did find that Johnston County Library is currently in the top ten for State Aid to the library.staid0809.pdf Though, it's not very informative on "why" or "how" each county is given a greater or lesser amount?
I don't think that supply and demand is the biggest issue here. What appears to be lacking is a realistic business plan. Who's going to pledge their 'support' when there's no clear picture of how much 'support' is needed? I've been reading a lot about the Cleveland library over the past few months and the overwhelming problems are lack of man power and space. Assuming that neither of those is going to come free, and it doesn't look like anyone is ponying up a bunch of tax dollars, how would the library be able to sustain itself? Of course I would love to a have a Cleveland library. We're big supporters of the library system and think every community should have access to a great library. But realistically, that kind of expansion in that amount of time seems to be a recipe for disaster. Without any promise of significant aid, it just doesn't seem very realistic. I've read that there are already boxes and boxes of books already just sitting in storage due to lack of space. Taking on so many new books in such a short amount of time, relying upon volunteers and cash donations... well, it hasn't exactly worked that well in the past. I would think that there's a reason that most library systems take such a long time to grow. It seems like the county needs to cough up either more guaranteed funding, loans, or some municipal space before anyone can expect such a large expansion in just 1 year.
Great questions regarding library. Answers below. Business plan - We are so far ahead of our business plan in acquisition, we can't believe the numbers. Finish the bar coding and labeling by the end of May - about 5,000 books stacked to label plus the new donations folks bring in. Repair and build out shelving inside the building (money in bank and volunteers arranged) in May and June. Start renovation of bookmobile in May or June after corporate donor's final check arrives to finish buying the unit (partial renovation money in bank and volunteers scheduled). Man power and space question - Woman power, not man power, started and built most of Johnston's libraries. We've carried a full schedule, tight quarters, and demand for more volunteers for the last six years. Since August, the library volunteers unpacked almost 30,000 items. Some had to be trashed, 400 were sent to Clayton for their book sale, and hundreds went other directions. Our volunteers built bookshelves, remodeled existing bookshelves, fixed and replaced lights, put over 49,000 library labels and bar codes on books, CDS, DVDs. Our trained catalog crew started experimenting with software. We started issuing both temporary and permanent library cards and built the member database. In the last year, we had nearly 300 volunteers come through and give the community 6,000 hours of service. We have a commitment for 500 linear shelf feet for additional books and can possibly put 864 linear shelf feet in the bookmobile. Supply question - The county supply of books in Johnston County has not kept up with the population growth over the past 20 years or we would have more than 1.7 books per resident (figure supplied by county staff). The real question is, "How many county books are available in the 40/42 or Cleveland Township community for our residents to use." Particularly after school and after folks drive home from work, which is after the bookmobile leaves Food Lion on its once a month 30-minute visit. Demand question - Johnston County demand can't be accurately tracked, since so many Johnston County residents are drawing books out of Wake County's libraries, where major media stories claim threr is unusually high demand. The 40/42 bookmobile service is not an accurate indicator of demand, since the 30 minute per month visits at Food Lion occur while most residents are working in Wake County. The librarians at SE Regional, Garner, told us the customers are demanding library service to serve the southern Garner area. Four Oaks expressed a need due to the lack of funding for new books and no expansion room. It is illogical that 1.7 books would satisfy the needs of a young and growing community, particularly when they all reside out of the community. Money question - Cleveland Township has just received $900,000 worth of books and videos for free and can receive up to $2.4 million worth by next year. Of course money is an issue for any library simply due to the start-up costs of providing books for a new service area, which we just about eliminated. Basic Needs Ministry has struggled for years to get enough money to pay the rent, utilities, and buy the food. For 6 years it has been using all volunteers and the same lease space and cannot continue as a clothing closet or food pantry, let alone library without the same base costs of operation. Our clothing closet set the demand for space and has helped thousands get free clothing after our churches and schools stopped providing clothing closets and exchanges. The donated clothing saved the community thousands, if not millions in dollars from its offering plates. We started having the book shelves built in 2003, when clothing donors packed books in with the clothing donations. Our food pantry chopped space out of the excess clothing storage area. It provides 150-200,000 meals per year in a 15,000 resident township, which has no other free food sources. Feeding our hungry neighbors through the food pantry is a much larger annual cash drain than the library, because of increased electric bills and direct weekly food costs. We hacked another space out of our excess clothing storage area and acquired the $20,000 in grants to open, equip, and provide the computer lab so students could have after school access to computers, modern software, and the Internet. We didn't plan for the downturn in the economy that caused many to come in to look for work, college opportunities, and computer classes. Our prescription drug discount program costs nothing and only requires a small counter space and with the other Wake County users saved $2.1 million in the first 17 months and is now available in 66 North Carolina counties, partially because of our efforts. Basic Needs provided thousands of free books to schools and other organizations in the past 6 years, but was not able to provide wide community access to the books. Now through its Cleveland Library with a free public lending policy for local residents, Basic Needs is able to solve one of the community's primary problems. It can and has already doubled the Cleveland ratio of books to residents. Maybe the reading levels will go up and maybe the usage rate will go up, now that the books are available. There will be the costs of labels, bar codes, and genre labels for the increased collection size - about $3,000 and bookshelves - about $60 for each 24 linear feet. Since we are able to receive 70,000 books for free, we have ignored the $70,000 costs to put all books in plastic covers and tape them on. We should have no costs for our Internet server or new Koha library system software. A consideration is that if we only have room for our initial 25,000 or so items and can offer them without additional lease space, is there anything wrong with storing extra books until additional lease or donated space becomes available. It would still be a great savings to the community. We have a commitment for many feet of shelving to be built in May and June, which will help us organize our books faster and better. We will also be reworking all existing shelves to hold the extra weight.
I just wanted to mention that the bookmobiles presence in our area is not limited to a single 30 minute stop at Food Lion once per month. They make regularly scheduled stops throughout the area in multiple neighborhoods on various days. If/When the utilization of the bookmobile by residents increases at the Food Lion stop, they said they would increase the time of that stop to accommodate everyone. In addition to the bookmobile, I believe some of the local schools opened their libraries to students over the summer break last year. I believe it would be wonderful to have a real brick & mortar library in the area. However, during a time when there isn't even enough money to pay teacher salaries, homes are being foreclosed on in record numbers & the employment of so many are in danger ... I don't know that money & donations will be as readily available for the purpose of a library as they have been in the past. Because you do so much with the community & work with so many who have fallen on bad times ... you probably know far more about this subject than I do ... so I could be wrong. In any case, for now I am pleased with the wonderful service I receive from the bookmobile. Ron, I did want to say THANK YOU for all you do for the community!!! Folks like you definitely make this a better place to live!! On a side note ... I believe the bookmobile will be making a visit to the Food Lion parking lot this Wednesday, May 6 at 2:30pm. You can search the library on-line & then contact the bookmobile staff to let them know what books you'd like and they will bring the books to you. If they don't have the material available to you at the local library, given enough time, they may be able to borrow it from another library branch. If you don't have a library card, they can sign you up for one. In addition to books, the bookmobile also has books-on-tape & rental movies. For those who need large print books, they have those available also. As mentioned before, if the Food Lion stop becomes popular, they will increase the time of the stop.
Very interesting reading. Most of us do not think about the problems with upgrading or starting a library or the actual cost afterwards. I live in Kenly & can remember when our library was very, very small. I visit & use the libraries in Kenly & Selma often-mostly cause they are convenient from work & home.
Ron - Maybe you could see if the library could benefit from some of this "free" labor: http://www.4042.com/4042forums/showthread.php?t=24880
