11/9/2010 BOARD OF LIBRARY TRUSTEES Minutes

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Library Budget NarraMve FY 2012 The library budget includes existing positions, to gevity payments and step increases specified in union contracts. Additionally, I have Included the three positions created at October Town Meeting and voted upon by the voters. I will explain the rationale for including these new positions within the line item ` discussion below. STAFFING in October, with the support of the Board of Selectmen,. the trustees submitted articles to create three new positions FTE) for the library. The articles, which didn't'linclude fu ndi.ng, were approved by the voters. Our hope is to add those positions next fiscal year. There was some thought that volume would slacken once people had their first lo o at the inside of the new library. Ire actuality,they carne,th y saw 'it and they continue to make heavy use Of this wonderful facility. in the first quarter of the fiscal year, library transactions rose by 54 Over the same period of FY 2010. I expect by FY 2011's end t0 have a yearly volume close to Harwich's FY 2010 figure of Over 200,000 items. Mashpee's FY 2010 total was 122,000 items. If that projection is accurate, that would be a 4% increase Over last year. During the first quarter of the fiscal year, we have issued over 1,700 library cards, compared t0 a base figure of 10,000 library card holders at the end of FY 2010. Those 10,000 cards were added over many years. We have increased the base by 17%in a single quarter. Mary are new users and reed instruction on how to use the library catalog, where to find things and instructions on how to use the library computers. In summary, we are serving many more people and handling much greater volume Of transactions with a staff spread thinly over a building four times the size Of the old library. We have found cr'eative ways to use volunteers to help us through the next fiscal year, but that is a stopgap solution and won't address all of Our staffing needs. We have had many days when we were at crisis level. One person was on vacation and another was out sick. Working with such a thin margin is very stressful and makes it difficult to provide the level of service Our patrons have come to expect. Unplanned absences(illness)throw a carefully crafted schedule off the rails. A spreadsheet showing a comparison of CLAMS transactions by library is Included in this budget submission. Column D shows the total circulation by library for the first quarter. Column F shows the current ranking of each library by number of circulation transaction through the quarter. I lashpee is currently the third busiest library, behind Falmouth and Harwich. Column G shows the total circulation transactions for each library for the last fiscal year (FY 2010)* Column H shores the yearly ranking per library. Il ashpee has risen from tenth busiest library to third since the new building has Opened. The staffing level has remained virtually the sane, despite the tremendous increase in volume. second spreadsheet shows a c mpari On of staffing levels. A smaller subset of libraries was looked at in this chart. Towns of similar population size were included. libraries with much smaller population' and munch .lower circulation volumes were excluded as not being comparable to Mashpee's staffing situation. Those libraries circulat"on volume were included on the previous spreadsheet.