Library needs more books

Of the 25 largest cities and towns in the state, Laconia is 23rd in the per-capita number of volumes in its public library's media collections. And 15th on the list in terms of how much money it spends annually — again per-capita — on books and CDs.

In relaying those facts, Public Library trustee Chairman Bob Selig last week made a pitch to City Council for a significant increase in the institutions operating budget. But if there are any councilors who are particularly drawn to the cause it was not obvious during the budget workshop session.

The library completed at $4-million renovation and expansion project to rave reviews in the fall of 2005 and the circulation of library materials, Selig said, jumped 26-percent last year. Still, the library owns only about 44,000 volumes and the number should be closer to $75,000 for a city of this size. "We're bringing more people to the library (for books and programs)," Selig said in advocating for a greater selection of inventory.

Selig and the other trustees asked for a $764,943 operating budget for fiscal year 2007-2008, an increase of 12.3-percent over their current allotment of funds. And that total does not include increases in the values of the various rungs of the library's pay-scale ladder.

Selig said seniority "step" increases were included and he told councilors that he hoped the underlying pay scale would eventually be improved to the same extent as the employees covered by the city's various collective bargaining units. The contracts covering all four city employee unions expire on June 30 and agreements have yet to be agreed to.

"It's in the contingency (line item), the same as everybody else," said City Manager Eileen Cabanel in response.

The library budget recommendation Cabanel has forward to council is $67,304 lower than what was requested — though still 2.4-higher than last year — and Selig took time to explain the four areas where the trustees are in disagreement with Cabanel.

Most of the dollars cut were in books and CDs. The library asked for $120,000 — enough to purchase about 5,000 volumes — and Cabanel cut that total to $70,300. $68,206 was budgeted for the current fiscal year but Selig stressed the library is playing catch-up.

The library is concentrating on building up its collection for teenage readers this year, Selig said, and will look to boost the collections in the children's library with the next budget. "We have a tremendous amount of (open) space on the children's' shelves," he said.

Councilor Henry Lipman wanted to know the extent to which the city's library and public schools coordinate their effort at providing materials for the school-age population and the answer was not much. "We do coordinate on summer reading books," Selig said. "But other than that there is no real coordination."

A basic problem, Selig continued, is that schools computer system for cataloging inventory is not nearly as sophisticated as the software used by the library. "We have no idea what their inventory is," he said, because that information cannot be accessed by an outside computer.

The schools, on the other hand, Selig said, have total online access to what the library has.

Trustee vice-chairman John Moriarty told councilors the last time he looked into purchasing the same software subscription for the schools that the library uses was in 2000 and the price was $8,000. "They do have five libraries," he noted.

After Lipman insisted that he would like to see "expansion (of library volumes) by collaboration (with the schools)", Selig said that in theory that sounds like a good idea but as rule schools and libraries do not work together well in terms of inventory. Stories he has read or heard of attempts at collaboration have all been negative, he said.

Elsewhere, the library had $6,194 budgeted for the programs it has been offering this year and trustees tried to get it increase to $12,000. Cabanel cut their request back to $6,400.

Cabanel totally zeroed-out a new line item request for $7,500 to maintain the building's new heating, ventilation and air conditioning system. "We're going to have to spend it," Selig told councilors, because the original no-extra-charge service package that was part of the warranty has expired.