Pottstown Library Director Michael Packard makes his pitch for funding Thursday during the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners' meeting
SANATOGA PA – Mike Packard will be the first to tell you that Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township residents are a pretty well-informed lot. They rely on the local library to borrow books, magazines, movies and music. They sometimes take advantage of its free Internet services, and on occasion bring their children to story-time there.
In fact, Packard reports, although township patrons of the Pottstown Regional Public Library, 500 High St., Pottstown PA, comprise only 17 percent of all its registered users, they borrow a disproportionate share – almost 21 percent – of all its materials. Yet the township during 2011 contributed only 12 percent, $62,125, of the library’s $525,729 budget.
So with a somewhat sheepish smile, but no hesitation, library director Packard on Thursday (Aug. 18, 2011) boldly went where others fear to tread: into the Board of Commissioners’ second meeting of the month, to request a funding increase for 2012. Commissioners smiled in return, and equally without hesitation said they’d think about it.
Board members have learned the hard way that the library is indeed important to their constituents. They tried during 2009 to halve the township’s contribution to $30,000 in a stab as cost-saving, then reversed themselves when taxpayers loudly complained.
Increasing Lower Pottsgrove’s donation to the library by more than $26,000 next year to $88,411, as Packard said he hoped the board might realistically consider, would more accurately reflect the township population’s library borrowing habits. The board did not commit to a number but thanked Packard for his presentation.
Lower Pottsgrove’s library statistics
Registered township patrons: 3,821
Total library patrons: 23,151
Township patronage: 17 percent
Township patrons’ circulation: 11,737 items in 6 months
Total library circulation: 55,993 items in 6 months
Township circulation: 20.9 percent
Township library funding 2011: $62,125
Total library budget 2011: $525,729
Township 2011 revenue to library: 11.8 percent
Township 2011 revenue per capita: $5.15 per person
Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove 2012 budget):
- Thanks To Survey Input, Township Preparing Trash Bids
- Pottstown Library Asks Township For Higher Funding
Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ meeting of Aug. 18):
- Thanks To Survey Input, Township Preparing Trash Bids
- Pottstown Library Asks Township For Higher Funding
- Commissioners OK Pruss Hill Road Accidents Study
- July 2011 Warrants From Lower Pottsgrove Now Online
- Township Pays Two Attorneys In Police Discipline Case
- Road Re-Paving Is Coming; Just When Anybody’s Guess
- Township, An Unhappy Bank Customer, Goes Elsewhere
- Township May Put Money Where Authority’s Mouth Is
The Library might consider a small fee to its patrons that can afford to do so. One could work out who would not have to pay the fee.
My Library card has gone unused for over a decade, but I still see the value in a repository of information and access to Library holdings beyond those of Pottstown, which the card allows one to have.
I wholly agree, Ed: the Pottstown Regional Public Library is a terrific resource, and it has added some interesting programs and features in recent years. I’m not sure, though, how you’d define who “can afford” to pay a fee, as you put it, and who couldn’t without some major privacy violations.