Economy down, library use up

By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK
Register Reporter

Across the country — and Kansas —libraries are seeing an influx of patrons as the economy continues to slump, and people turn to their public libraries for resources such as job hunting, Internet service and video rentals that are a sight cheaper than what they’ll find through Netflix, pay-per-view or their local store.
Library services are, after all, free, a blessing in these troubled times.
“Today’s libraries provide Kansans with so much more than ever before — Internet connectivity, career development, homework assistance, and child literacy in addition to books, movies and magazines,” said State Librarian Christie Brandau.
Across the state, user numbers are up 19 percent, according to the state’s Data Center Coordinator.
In Iola, the trend is similar.
“On a per capita figure, I think we compare favorably to the state,” said Roger Carswell, director of the Southeast Kansas Library System.
Carswell has a graph that shows that, like national trends, Iola’s circulation goes up during troubled economic times.
However, Iola’s recent circulation numbers show a slight downward trend. The tallied numbers do not reflect actual usage, said Carswell.
“It doesn’t measure computer use or looking at materials in the library. It only measures things that go out the door,” Carswell explained.
“We don’t collect Internet user data,” he said. And the library does not do a regular head count of patrons coming through the door, he added.
In addition, he said, the library recently switched to a new computerized data system, KOHA, in November 2008. Three other area libraries also switched to the KOHA system, and they all reported numbers that did not mesh with what they saw.
“All of us thought our numbers were significantly low,” he said, compared to the actual number of users librarians noticed in the facilities.
Iola Public Library Director Lesa Cole agreed. There are many people, Cole said, who “come in and use our facility.” They read books, magazines or use the Internet. That doesn’t mean they check things out, though.
Amie VanNice is one such patron.
“I usually come in every day,” she said. “I type my homework for the college here, I check my e-mail.” She even brings in a youth she does respite care for. “When he’s had a good day we come in and he plays on the computer.”
What she doesn’t do, though, is check out books.
So even though she is there every day, VanNice is invisible as far as Iola’s user data is concerned.
Such “invisible” use is growing.
Seventh-grader Cody Conner also comes in almost every day. He, too, “mostly uses the computer.”
“We have a lot more people coming in and asking for the Web site” for filing unemployment claims, said Cole.
“Mainly, the ones that have come in have never used the library before,” she said. “We’ve seen more faces.”
In addition to filing unemployment claims — “They can do it by phone or on the Internet, and the phone waits are terrible” — Cole said, “We’ve had some come in and use Monster.com and other job sites.”
“So many places have started downsizing,” she mused, and Iola is far from the nearest job center, that the library is a natural place to access regional job availability information.
“A lot of libraries are now the first stop for Social and Rehabilitative Services of Kansas,” as well, said Southeast Kansas Library Systems Special Needs Consultant Diane Stines. Stines said as smaller SRS offices close, their services, too, are accessed through local library computers. “We’re not just libraries anymore, we are community centers,” Stines offered.
“As we’ve been out visiting our member libraries,” Carswell added, “they’ve gone out of their way to mention that’s exactly what’s happening.”
Increased Internet use has affected other aspects of Iola’s library as well.
“Our adult fiction has been consistently up, but nonfiction is dropping,” Carswell said. “Probably because of the ability to get information off the Internet.” Audio books are still popular, he said, though growth in their use is slowing. There’s no indication if that is due to people driving less due to layoffs.
One point of circulation that has seen an upturn is video use, Cole said.
“It really seems use has been up the past few weeks as people drop their cable. Most of them say they just can’t afford it anymore,” Cole said.
Overall, circulation numbers in Iola are still pretty good.
“We have 1.2 circulations per capita, which is still above what the state circulation per capita has been,” Carswell said. In Iola, patrons can find a large collection of audio books, cookbooks and framed artwork they can take home, as well as the usual fare. Now if they’d only step away from the computer monitor long enough to do so.

03/10/09