FOCUS: BUSY LIBRARIES
Business booms at local libraries while the economy tanks
More visit libraries to save on books, Web
If the library offers it for free, don’t pay for it somewhere else. That’s the logic behind the plan of Maria Procyk and Eric Lauck.
The Buffalo couple received their first library cards Thursday and spent part of the afternoon waiting for an available computer at the crowded Central Library downtown.
Procyk said that as their budget became tighter, luxuries such as buying books and surfing the Web were the first to go. They said they no longer want to pay $40 a month for the Internet.
“You’re going to go out and buy food first,” Procyk said.
Their story is no longer unusual. Hard times are leading more people to the doors of the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library for the free services it offers, the system’s director says.
Overall, patronage at branches and contract libraries has increased significantly in the past year, with several locations recording double-digit increases, according to Director Bridget Quinn-Carey. Use of free public-access computers alone shot up nearly 50 percent in the first half of 2008, she said.
Quinn-Carey said she is convinced sky-high gasoline prices and other hardships are driving the gains. And, she said, she believes state lawmakers should consider the plight of struggling families and the help libraries provide before they take an ax to library budgets.
In challenging the Legislature to trim $600 million from this year’s state budget when it meets in special session Tuesday, Gov. David A. Paterson provided a target list that includes public libraries, along with nearly every other agency and program.
Any funding reduction would come “just when local libraries need money the most,” warned Quinn-Carey, whose countywide network of branches and contract libraries is due to receive about $2.3 million from Albany toward its annual operating budget of $27.8 million. The system is counting on another $700,000 in state grants to support community outreach and other programs.
Those totals reflect a 2 percent reduction in state help from 2007 for an organization whose funding level has now fallen 17 percent since 2004.
Not only did the use of public access computers grow by more than 47 percent through June, compared with the first six months of 2007, but the circulation of library materials grew more than 5 percent, Quinn-Carey said.
At the flagship Central Library on Lafayette Square, patron visits increased 19 percent.
Thursday, Buffalo resident Isla Marrero picked up books on Maya Angelou and Eleanor Roosevelt to brush up on her history.
“You have to know where you came from to know where you’re going,” she said.
She said she used to have more money to buy books. Now that her expendable income is no longer there, she said, she enjoys coming to the library.
“This place is rich with history, rich with knowledge,” she said. “It’s there if you want it.”
High fuel prices are also affecting library use. To save gasoline, members are making more use of the library’s request system to have needed books and other materials delivered to the branch closest to their homes. Through June 30, 868 boxes of materials had been shipped — 16 percent more than in the first six months of 2007.
Patrons also downloaded nearly 9,000 titles from the audio book checkout list to their home computers or MP3 players — an 89 percent increase over the same period a year earlier.
One library patron who frequently visits for the music is Tai Truesdale. The Buffalo resident does not have a computer at home, so he travels to the Central Library nearly every day.
“If I had a computer at home, I would never be here,” he said.
The uptick in numbers reflects “the combined impact of recent service restorations and the challenging economic situation many citizens now face,” Quinn-Carey said.
The county-funded restorations have provided more access to resources, while money from the state has supported basic services at all library locations, including material deliveries and computer services, she said.
Access to the wealth of books and other materials “enriches the lives of families throughout the county,” added Quinn-Carey, pointing to a recent WBEN radio survey of public school teachers who rated county libraries as the top summer vacation destination for their students, ahead of places such as Washington, D.C., and Florida.
Unless fuel prices fall dramatically, the demand for services is likely to rise even further, “a challenge the library system is eager to take on,” Quinn-Carey said. “We hope we can count on the governor and the State Legislature to help us be there for our residents.”
That would mean a lot to Mickie Sarnowski. The lifelong library patron goes to the Central Library every weekday while she waits for the bus.
“I love to read, and I love to learn,” Sarnowski said. “This is my primary source of entertainment.”
tbuckham@buffnews.com and bhayden@buffnews.com
