Holmes County District Public Library looks to fundraisers to maintain bookmobile program
By Nick Sabo
April 24, 2014
517
SUMMARY: Seeks to raise $40,000 for popular program
Unless a fundraising campaign planned by the Holmes County District Library is successful, bookmobile service may be cut back or eliminated altogether.
With a goal of $40,000, the library will reach out to local businesses and host a variety of fundraisers, Bill Martino, library director, said. The money is necessary to maintain the bookmobile program as it currently stands: Two bookmobiles making dozens of stops a month around the county, checking in and loaning out hundreds of thousands of materials per year.
The money would be used primarily for fuel, materials and maintenance, Martino said. Salaries for the librarians staffing the bookmobile are paid through the library's general fund.
Were the library to stop the bookmobile visits all together, a sizable portion of the county would lose access to a well-used resource. According to numbers presented by Martino, the library circulates approximately 700,000 items per year, 300,000 of which are signed out through the bookmobile.
The bookmobile is handling the kind of volume that, four years ago, people could draw on from any of the branch libraries. The branch libraries are now closed, the victims of cuts to library funding at the state level.
In 2009, the library lost one-quarter of its budget after state lawmakers made cuts to library funding, Martino said. Voters said no three times when the library sought to make up for the loss in funding with a levy.
The library closed all of its branches, leaving the main library in Millersburg, and created a east branch in Walnut Creek. Killbuck and Winesburg lost their library branches in 2010, and the library board agreed to expand bookmobile services to make up for the loss. (Killbuck has since opened a community library, supported by local donations and fundraisers).
To keep the bookmobile running in 2010, the library orchestrated a series of successful fundraisers. Four years later, most of the bookmobile support funds have been exhausted, Martino said.
Phil Yoder, assistant librarian with extension services, said that closing the branches has not stopped demand for library services. Manning the bookmobile April 23 with assistant librarian Linda Hershberger-Kirk on a three hour stop in Berlin, Yoder noted that it is not unusual for someone to check out 40 to 50 items.
You have one person come in and pick up reading materials for their entire family, Yoder said. Weve had people come on with Rubbermaid tubs.
As if on cue, a boy who has just dropped off an armload of books gets help from Yoder to find books his mother may like after piling up a stack of young adult reading.
The bookmobile makes public stops at Berlin, Killbuck, Nashville and Winesburg, as well as stops at the Holmes County Training Center, schools, both parochial and public, and rest homes. The bookmobiles are loaded up according to the stop; in Berlin, the bookmobile has a selection representing all the main branch of the library has to offer, Hershberger-Kirk said. When visiting parochial schools, the DVDs are out of reach and romance and western novels are removed.
Individual service on the bookmobile is even more personal than that. Hershberger-Kirk and Yoder get to know the regulars and try to be prepared for them. When 13-year-old Titus Roller got on the bookmobile in Berlin, Hershberger-Kirk had a book on green building materials, appealing to Titus interest in architecture.
Titus is from Winesburg and uses the bookmobiles WiFi services when it visits there.
I dont have it at home and there isnt anywhere (with internet access) in Winesburg, Titus said.
Titus brings in his own tablet when using the internet. The bookmobile further has laptops that can be used on site.
No sooner than her mother parked beside the bookmobile, pre-schooler Chloe Keim sprinted to the door clutching eight childrens books to her chest. Half of them slipped to the ground just after Chloe got to the bookmobile, and Hershberger-Kirk helped her gather them up.
Chloes mother, Fannie Keim, said it isnt unusual for Chloe to check out a book for every day between bookmobile stops, especially in the summer.
Chloes older sister, Lindsey, is a client at the training center and enjoys the bookmobile stop there just as much, Keim said.
I think the kids really like going on the bookmobile, Keim said. They think its cool to go in and check out books.
Though kids made up the majority of visitors early on at the Berlin stop, the bookmobile isnt just for young people, Yoder said. The WiFi capabilities are appreciated in Winesburg and Killbuck where service is limited. Book orders include how-to and business-related volumes. At the retirement homes, best-sellers and DVDs are popular.
When someone in Killbuck or Winesburg wants a book available on the librarys shared lending system, they can order it through the bookmobile and get it within a week or two.
The library has managed to build a substantial carryover since the budget cuts went into effect. At the end of 2013, the carryover stood at $443,795, according to library fiscal officer Paula Cicconetti.
Martino said the carryover is a hedge against further cuts and emergencies, and wont be used to keep the bookmobile program going.
Without additional funds, Martino said the bookmobile program will have to be eliminated, at worst, or scaled back drastically at best.
It basically means a lot of people will lose their library, Martino said. We certainly couldnt keep it at the rate it is now. At best, wed have to cut back on stops.
KUTLINE:
Nick Sabo photo
Assistant librarian with extension services Linda Hershberger-Kirk checks in books aboard the Holmes County District Public Library's bookmobile April 23 during a community stop in Berlin. The library is looking to fundraisers to keep the bookmobile going.
