By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The Wood County District Public Library trustees Monday approved $3.2 million appropriations for the year.
That’s a 13.4 percent over what was actually spent last year, but only 4 percent more than was appropriated in 2018.
Library Director Michael Penrod has his own approach to budgeting. “I don’t always spend what’s appropriated,” he explained to trustees. “If I’m told I’m getting $1, I’ll plan on getting 95 cents. I’ll appropriate 94 cents and spend 90.”
Some things are uncertain. The library will seek bids for a new chiller and condenser to replace its air conditioning system.
That system has to make it through one last summer. That has board president Brian Paskvan a little worried. “It’s at the end of its life.”
But it will take four to five months to get the system once bids are accepted, Penrodsaid. Installation is scheduled for late October and November.
The project is projected to cost $210,000.
The largest expenditures are on personnel, representing about 58 percent of the budget.
The library will also spend $478,000 on books and other materials.
Trustee Nathan Eikost asked why the expenditure for ebooks and other digital resources was larger than for print books.
Assistant Director Michele Raine said ebooks are more expensive. A $20 print book may cost $85 in digital form, and that comes with a limit of 24 times that it can circulate. After that the library must but it again.
“We’re leasing them,” concluded trustee Ellen Dalton.
A print volume, on the other hand, can be loaned out until it falls apart, Raine said.
The concept of ownership is changing, Penrod said.
But the demand for what he called “real” books is strong as seen by increasing sales at independent bookstores.
Penrod said the library is competing with Amazon. In a time when readers can get a book delivered to their homes the next day, the library can’t expect its patrons “to have to wait week after week after week for a book,” he said.
The library plans to spend 16.7 percent of its budget on materials. That’s well over the national average of 11.5 percent.
The $478,000 comes from local tax revenue ($338,000) and from the annual the Library Foundation’s benefit held at Schedel Gardens ($140,000).
Also during the meeting, the board approved closing the library on July 18 so that benefit can now be held in the building.
Penrod said that last summer people were “shoulder to shoulder” at the Schedel. There was also some sentiment about moving the fundraiser to Bowling Green.
Proceeds from that event were among the $388,171.80 in charitable donations given to the library in 2018.
Penrod said those donations were “huge” in terms of supporting the budget. They came in large and small amounts.
The coin vortex in the lobby brought in $760.11, which is used for toys for The Children’s Place.
Raine also demonstrated a new research tool available on the library’s website.
The Local Newspaper Digital Archive is a searchable database of the Bradner and Risingsun newspapers as well as the Sentinel-Tribune in its various iterations. The archive covers from 1870 to 1924. Raine explained that all material from 1924 and earlier is out of copyright.
The site is available from the library’s website.
The project was funded by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services awarded by the State Library of Ohio and the Mearl and Lolita Guthrie estate.
