By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The Wood County District Public Library is experiencing growth.
“Maybe libraries are languishing in other parts of the country, other parts of the state, but not here,” Library Director Michael Penrod told the trustees last week.
“It (2024) was a phenomenal year that shows the value the library has for the community,” he said.
They come in not only to borrow books in all formats and other materials, but they come in for help with technology, to use the computers to file for unemployment benefits, and help finding jobs and developing their skills. Kids come in for help with homework, and snacks.
Penrod provided a raft of numbers to back that statement up.
In 2023, Patrons borrowed 159,000 items.
The number of visitors that visited the library was up 7 percent, to 153,951 in Bowling Green and Walbridge. That’s on top of 14 percent increase the year prior.
The library hosted 1160 events, 149 more than in 2023
37,000 23 increase on top of 50 percent growth in 2023.
“That’s the highest program attendance we’ve ever had,” he said. “people are reaching out to the library every day.”
What’s not increasing is state support. Penrod said that support from the state’ s Public Library Fund, which accounts for 60 percent of the tax support, has been “erratic,” down $103,000 last year.
A $92,000 increase in philanthropic giving helped offset that.
The library usually budgets about $1.5 million from the fund. It receives another $1 million from its tax levy.
The amount from gifts is impossible to predict since some comes as legacies when a supporter dies.
Last year the library received more than $280,000 in gifts. Just over half was from the Library Foundation’s Novel Night Fundraiser.
[RELATED: Donations help the library’s stacks stocked]
Those are the library’s only three major sources of funding. It also brings in miscellaneous income from fees, services, and interest. None of that can be counted on. Last year interest income was $185,623, but just a few years ago it was just over $2,000.
That funding has allowed the library to spend 17.9 percent of its budget on materials to loan, well above the 10.5 percent national average so that patrons don’t have to wait to get the most recent best seller.
The Public Library Fund pays for 51 percent of library expenditures statewide. At present, the fund receives 1.7 percent of the states general revenues. Those revenues lagged last year accounting for the drop in funds for libraries.
The Ohio Library Council is advocating for that percentage to be increased to 2 percent in the next state budget.
The fund has not kept up with inflation, Penrod said.
The $489.3 million it generated in 2024 is about $8 million less in actual dollars than it generated in 2001. That would be $893 million in 2025 dollars.
In 2008 the PLF percentage was set at 2.22 percent, and collected $818.2 million, or $613.3 million in 2025 dollars. Then the Great Recession saw the collections drop again and frozen for two years. That prompted the WCDPL to launch its first levy campaign in 2010 That levy has been approved by large margins, with a six-year 0.8 mill levy. It will be back on the ballot in 2026.
The PLF percentage of state revenue has dropped to 1.66 percent, and fluctuated between 1.68 and 1.7 percent.
Now with a new budget in the early stages of creation, Penrod and others in the state are pushing to edge that percentage back to 2 percent. “The Public Library Fund has not kept up with inflation,” he said.
He noted that libraries have benefited from support from local state legislators, including State Sen. Theresa Gavarone and State Rep. Haraz Ghanbari.
He credited Randy Gardner, then in the legislature, with pushing to have the fund applied to all the state’s general revenue rather than a higher percentage just from the income tax.
One Republican Cincinnati legislator has said the amount that goes to libraries amounts to “a rounding error” in the state budget.
Yet, Penrod said, he’s heard from staffers at the Ohio Library Council, that some legislators are questioning why the state needs the fund.
Penrod said having state funding means that patrons can use any public library in the state.
It eliminates the parochial boundaries such as in Michigan, where out-of-town patrons must pay to get a card in a library in a neighboring town. In Ohio patrons have access to books from throughout the state.
Penrod said he and other librarians would like legislators “to prioritize public libraries in the budget.”
“We have this great system,” he said. “The sustainability of the public library fund is crucial to our success.”
