Missed October

10 November 2014 ------October is a busy month and it is easy to forget to write a new post on the blog. Among the exciting activities this past month was filing the State Aid report. The State provides about .37 per person that is served by the Vicksburg District Library. It isn't much aid from the State but the compilied State Aid reports contain a lot of information that is useful for the library when writing grants, looking at internet speed, types of operationg systems, size of collection and so on. By law public libraries are to receive .50 cents per person but since the law was passed in the 1980's that amount was only realized in two years of the Engler's tenure as governor. So I was filling out the State Aid report and I noticed two things on the report. First, the number of people signing onto our WiFi connection has increased a lot in the past year and the number of downloads from our ebook collection is rising. These are good signs as it tells me that we are meeting the needs of our patrons and that our selection policy is working. The challange is that we need to increase the size of our available band width and we will need to dedicate more of our resources to the purchase of ebooks. With the new budget year,which begins on March 1, we have budgeted enough funds to double the bandwith next year but we will not be able to increase the amount we spend on the ebook collection. ----- Over the next year or two, we will continue with needed renovations to the library. From the bids we have received so far, we are looking at an amount between $170,000 to $200,000 dollars. As we are finding grants to defray some of the costs, we are asking our patrons to be generous in making donations to the library for the renovations. The addition to the library was made in the late 1980's which means that the phone system is a mix of analog and digital, the wiring for computers is dated and needs to be expanded to add extra computers, half of our computers are running Windows XP and the rest are using Windows 7. The carpet is stained and holes are in it by the adult reading tables and the seams are starting to come up. Our roof hasn't been replaced since the addition and the brickwork and stairs need to be repaired. Yes, I am appealing for generous donations as the roof and the carpeting are the two most expensive elements of this project. The people living in the Library District have been generous in the past and we are hoping that they will continue in their generousity. ---------- Since I wrote last, Miss Rachel has retired from the library. As you may have seen from our home page, Beth Dowson has come back to take over her duties as head of circulation. Beth will be ordering adult fiction books as well as audio books. We are sharing Beth's expertise with Comstock Library. She is here on Wednesday and Thursday and every third Sunday. Beth is also taking over the Adult Book Discussion Group on the first Thursday of the month. As she becomes familiar with our current operating system, she will be taking over as the manager of the circulation system. -----------The Library will be closed on Thanksgiving Day, 27 November. We will reopen at the regular time on Friday.----------The Library is holding an amnesty program for patrons under 18 years of age. They may return overdue items and have all overdue fines forgiven if they bring in a canned food item or personal hygene item for the South County Community food bank. ---------- The Village Council will be meeting in the Library meeting room on the first and third Mondays each month. There is a lot happening in Vicksburg and I would encourage the public to come in and attend the meetings. ---------- Hopefully I will not be so long between posting on the blog. Until next posting, remember read a good book and for parents, read to your children. John