Every day more than 13,000 people stream into one of the Gwinnett County Public Library branches. We have more than 3.4 million yearly visitors, a number increasing at 9 percent to 10 percent a year. They are checking out more than 7.5 million items and logging 5.4 million hits on our website. Yet the average family contributes less than $47 per year for these services.
The lives we touch exceed by many factors all other county services. The services we provide are almost as numerous as the number of people coming in each day. And they are not coming to the library of the past, but a library system that continues to evolve to meet the needs of the 15 neighborhood communities we serve.
A small number of people try to dumb down what we do. They draw an analogy between libraries and bookstores, or libraries and DVD rental stores. They say you can find everything you need by Googling it.
If this is true, why do our customers keep coming?
The Internet has not reduced the number of people coming to the library. Instead, thanks to the aggressive adoption of technology in our libraries, the number of users has increased. The recent announcement that Amazon Kindle eBooks are now available from libraries is a good example: Our request for eBooks increased 33 percent in one day, many from new library users.
The only similarity between our libraries and a bookstore is one question: “Do you have such and such a book?” For bookstores, the answer is a simple yes or no. Our 400,000 users have questions on everything from grammatical verb forms to finding credible breast cancer treatment options. They have no doubt about the value of librarians. They depend on us to always be there, no matter the question or need. That you can count on.
But there is another reality: Tax revenue is down. Our budget was cut a whopping 15 percent ($2.8 million), more than any other county department. We accepted the cut and continue to provide outstanding services. We had to trim our hours, yet we are keeping the doors open seven days a week.
Our hands aren’t tied, either, in these tough economic times. There is something we can do. With more than 400,000 users, we can raise non-tax revenue.
This GCPL supplemental revenue program includes partnering with local businesses to advertise their goods in our libraries. We also have linked with Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and Better World books: If you go to their websites from ours, we will benefit financially. Supporters now can make donations to us in person or online. And we offer customers the ability to purchase books, a program that will be expanded.
I hate to end on a negative note, but some of our nation’s outstanding library systems have been cut so much it’s expected that it will take a generation for them to recover. It takes years to build a successful, award-winning library system; a stroke of a pen can destroy it quickly. Don’t let that happen in Gwinnett County.
Phillip Saxton is chairman of the Gwinnett County Library Board.
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