Library Department Report

July 2007

Staffing

· A Materials Processor position remained vacant.

Facility

· No changes in the facility to report.

Professional Development & Meetings

· Meetings and workshops attended by professional staff included:

o Monthly Library Supervisors Meeting

o Monthly Staff Meeting for Librarians, Circulation Coordinators & Library Assistants

o Monthly Staff Meeting for Library Pages – Mary Reed and Pamela Myers

o Lakeland Library Cooperative Finance Committee Meeting – Pamela Myers

o Lakeland Library Cooperative Advisory Council Meeting – Pamela Myers

o Lakeland Library Cooperative Policy, Planning & Services Committee Meeting – Pamela Myers

o Lakeland Library Cooperative Board Meeting – Pamela Myers

Programming, Promotions, Publicity, Special Projects,

Departmental Activities, etc.

· July 11: Book Discussion Group for Adults

o Book: The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards

o Facilitators: Mary Reed and Candace Hulst

o Attendance: 12

· Summer Reading Program for Adults continued (Program runs through August 04)

o Registration as of July 31: 109 adults

· Summer Reading Program for Youth continued (Program runs through August 03)

o Total Registration: 1,864 children and young adults

· Participation increased by more than 8.6% over 2006 levels.

· Special Summer Events for Youth

o July 11: John Ball Traveling Zoo (Ages 6 and older)

· Attendance: 263 children and 92 adults

o July 11: Story Time (Ages 5 & younger)

· Attendance: 47 children and 26 adults

o July 18: Ventriloquist Vikki Gasko (Ages 6 and older)

· Attendance: 216 children and 67 adults

o July 18: Story Time (Ages 5 & younger)

· Attendance: 30 children and 18 adults

o July 19: Bead It Workshop (Ages 12 – 17)

· Attendance: 10 teens

o July 25: Master Arts Street Theatre (Ages 6 and older)

· Attendance: 156 children and 45 adults

o July 25: Story Time (Ages 5 & younger)

· Attendance: 59 children and 29 adults

o July 3, July 10, July 17, July 24, and July 31: Puzzle Mania (All ages)

· Held Tuesdays 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm throughout the Summer Reading Program

· Attendance: Varied per session

o July 5, July 12, July 19, and July 26: Chapter Book Readings (All Ages)

· Held Thursdays at 3:00 pm throughout the Summer Reading Program

· Attendance: Varied per session

· Numerous children and young adults continued to participate in the Library’s two weekly contests: “Counting Game” and “Riddle A Week.”

· Promotional materials (e.g., press releases, displays, etc.) prepared and distributed for upcoming Summer Reading Program events – Jill Reyers

· Promotional materials for fall general programming for youth as well as Fall Story Time prepared – Jill Reyers

· Youth Services display of Egyptian-themed books – Sue Kirvan

· Youth Services featured author (Patricia Reilly Giff) book display – Sue Kirvan

· Weeding of Adult Nonfiction 700’s continued – Susan Carlson

· Patron database clean-up – Pamela Myers

· Library Department budget for fiscal year 2008 prepared – Pamela Myers

· Michigan Library Statistical Report Data Comparison Report prepared – Pamela Myers

· Compensation Comparison Report prepared – Pamela Myers

Friends of the Library

· No meeting is held during the month of July.

· Revenues from the Summer Used Book Sale (held July 26 - 28) totaled $861.90.

Service & statistical information

Service and statistical information for the month of July 2007 is presented below.

	July	July	% Change	2007 YTD	2006 YTD	% Change YTD
	2007	2006	2006 - 2007 %			2006 - 2007
Circulation (Items)
Total Circulation	39,125	38,064	2.79%	207,565	203,332	2.08%
Check-Outs	36,352	34,985	3.91%	187,425	184,062	1.83%
Check-Ins	36,707	34,608	6.07%	175,598	170,385	3.06%

Interlibrary Loan (Items)
Loaned	2,773	3,079	-9.94%	20,140	19,270	4.51%
Borrowed	3,804	3,817	-0.34%	24,027	23,287	3.18%
Paged (Searched For)	2,794	N/A	N/A	21,737	N/A	N/A

Holds
Placed By Staff	1,010	1,102	-8.35%	6,288	6,417	-2.01%
Calls to Patrons (Min.)	1,819	1,865	-2.47%	11,186	11,706	-4.44%
# of E-mail Notices	1,520	N/A	N/A	9,889	N/A	N/A
# of E-mail Items	2,182	N/A	N/A	14,935	N/A	N/A
# of Telephone Notices	1,742	N/A	N/A	10,611	N/A	N/A
# of Telephone Items	2,262	N/A	N/A	14,062	N/A	N/A

Traffic Count	18,741	16,535	13.34%	92,429	89,470	3.31%

On a quarterly basis, statistics related to the number and types of reference transactions fielded by staff are compiled at the various service desks in the Library. Data collection for the current quarter was completed during the week of July 16 - 21. In order to provide a basis for comparison, results from the previous year’s quarters are provided below as well.

	Completed	Directional	Reference	Total
Data Collection	Reference	Reference	Questions	Reference
Period	Questions	Questions	Not Completed	Transactions

2007
July 16 - 21	3,310	921	15	4,246
April 09 - 14	2,394	888	17	3,299
January 08 - 13	2,112	747	35	2,894

2006
October 23 - 28	2,194	672	18	2,884
July 17 - 22	2,535	867	30	3,432
April 17 - 22	1,136	459	23	1,618
January 09 - 14	1,207	513	42	1,762

Other

· The Lakeland Library Cooperative (LLC) Advisory Council; Policy, Planning & Services Committee; and Board met during the month. Discussions centered on how to (1) restructure the Cooperative delivery system to accommodate reduced State funding and limited increased member library funding and (2) how to equitably redistribute increased delivery costs among member libraries. Various factors for assessing delivery costs were explored (e.g., circulation volume, inter-library loan volume, cost-per-stop, collection expenditures per capita, population served, etc.). Combinations of factors with a base fee were also considered along with various weighting schemes for selected factors. Recommendations were sent to the LLC Board for review at their August meeting.

· The Cooperative as whole again set a new record in July with 1,224,706 items circulated. This figure surpassed the previous record of 1,156,713 items, set the previous month.