You want the Justin Bieber CD, and "Mad Men" on DVD. You'd like to scoop up every new vampire novel that comes out in hardcover, download a few literary classics onto your iPod, and still keep your subscriptions to Martha Stewart Living and Rolling Stone.

But there's only so much money to go around when it comes to buying books and media -- even though there are more formats than ever to spend it on.

Think these are problems just in your own household? Think again. That dilemma -- multiplied a thousandfold -- is the situation currently facing public libraries across Western New York, as well as around the nation.

In a tough economic climate in which budgets for governmental and cultural entities have flatlined or shrunk, public libraries have been for a few years now busily trying to reinvent the look and feel of their services -- chiefly through the range and variety of materials they choose to provide. Downloadable audio books and eBooks. CDs and DVDs. Hardcover best sellers and children's picture books. Magazines and newspapers and databases.

Right now, more sorts of materials than ever before are available -- and library users want access to them all. Public libraries are struggling to cope with those demands in an era in which they have fewer dollars to spend on collections to fill their shelves.

That's the problem -- and the potential -- facing libraries right now. And it's why the public libraries of Western New York are at such an important crossroads.

They want to keep their old customers, and attract as many new ones -- including younger people -- as they can.

Nobody is entirely sure what the answer will be. One thing is certain: the days of libraries filled with shelves of hardcover books is over. The new question is: what comes next?

Borrow, not buy

On a sunny midafternoon in August, Belinda Rupp ushered her two children, 6-year-old Abbie and 4-year-old Silas, out of the North Collins Public Library.

In their arms, the blond-haired siblings clutched new picture books and Disney princess DVDs. They beamed as they showed the items they had carefully chosen.

Meanwhile, inside the rural library, 40 other children were watching a presentation by Niagara Falls Aquarium staffers of a "touch tank" of sea life. Every computer monitor was occupied by an adult or child. The small brick building was busy and vibrant.

Rupp, a mom from Brant who doesn't own an e-reader like a Kindle, said that her family uses the libraries in North Collins and Eden on a weekly basis. Libraries, she said, provide her with cultural resources for her family that she would otherwise be unable to find -- or afford.

"We check out 15 to 25 books at a time," Rupp said. "We've just started with the DVDs and CDs. I do appreciate having this here -- for us, it's a cost savings. You can't afford to go out and buy every new DVD."

Many of the people who use the 37 libraries in the Buffalo & Erie Public Library system, as well as the 21 linked libraries in the Nioga Library system -- the library network in Niagara, Genesee and Orleans counties -- are a lot like Rupp. They enjoy traditional materials like books and magazines, and they were quick to shift to borrowing DVDs and CDs from the library when those collections became available.

Today, print borrowing from the public libraries in Erie County remains strong. Through July of this year, 53 percent of materials checked out of the system in 2010 -- that's 2.5 million items -- were print.

But media items like CDs and DVDs were a strong second, representing 46 percent of all checked-out items, or nearly 2.2 million borrowings.

The rest of the library's circulation this year -- under 1 percent -- was downloadable items, system data shows.

Librarians don't think it's surprising that books, DVDs and CDs are still the most popular with the general public.

"This is it," said Mary Muscarella, director of the North Collins library, in explaining the popularity of DVDs and CDs. "There is no Blockbuster here. This is really the only place in the community to get DVDs and music."

For now, most of these people aren't using downloadable books -- but they are intrigued by the possibility.

Across the Buffalo & Erie County system, 19,469 titles were downloaded as audio books by users in the first seven months of this year. That number climbed 27 percent from 2009, data showed.

E-book titles, meanwhile, were checked out by e-reader users 9,046 times in the first seven months of 2010, library figures show.

"I'm a stay-at-home mom," said Rupp, laughing, admitting that she has never used an electronic book. "I'm not plugged in a lot."

Staying relevant

Those sorts of perspectives make this a tricky time for those overseeing the public library systems in Western New York.

In a nutshell: They want to provide the same services patrons have always loved -- hardcover books, children's items, paperbacks and more -- while at the same time keeping their relevance by staying on the cusp of changing technology.

In 2010, the Buffalo & Erie County Library will spend $145,000 of its $27 million annual budget on downloadable materials.

And while that may not sound like an overwhelming amount, it's roughly double what the system spent on these items just last year -- a figure which itself was a sea change from 2006, when the libraries spent only $22,029 on such materials.

"Format is the biggest issue right now, but it's also the most exciting," said Bridget Quinn-Carey, director of the Buffalo & Erie County system. "In the past year, year and a half, we're in a whole new place. Ebooks never took off before now -- but now they have. It's suddenly a really viable format that people are ... using very much."

But the money for those downloadable items has to come from somewhere.

In the Erie County system, money for virtual materials has been shifted from other parts of the collections budget.

Spending on print materials -- like new hardcover books -- dipped to $1.3 million this year, down from last year, when slightly more than $1.5 million was spent on print. Budget lines for serials, such as magazines, and media, such as DVDs and CDs, also dropped this year from the year before, library figures show.

In the Nioga system, director Tom Bindeman said the 21 member libraries band together to cover the costs of downloadables as a group, to help lower the costs.

"If a library is well-funded, both print and nonprint (materials) are used in record numbers," said Bindeman, who sees the debate as something of a false dichotomy. "Just go down to Barnes & Noble and Borders -- people are standing around the books reading. If books are dead, then bookstores are dead. And they aren't."

 'It's a juggling act' Nationally, the libraries of Western New York are not alone in facing this dilemma.

Libraries across the country and struggling these days to find the right mix of materials to offer patrons, said Audra Caplan, president of the American Public Library Association, a part of the American Library Association.

"We're all grappling with the same issues, clearly," said Caplan, who is also director of the Harford County Public Library in Maryland. "There is demand for all formats. And the money is going away."

The larger context is the current gloomy economic climate, which is making more people than ever turn to public libraries for information, entertainment and education, said Caplan.

"The downturn in the economy has affected people in many, many ways," she said. "Many people cannot afford to go to Blockbuster anymore, or do Netflix."

"It's a juggling act," she said. "We cannot be all things to all people -- but we do have to respond to needs."

Quinn-Carey, director of the Erie County system, said the system needs to put everything on the table when it comes to planning the future of libraries in Erie County.

County Executive Chris Collins has said he may ask the system to take a significant funding cut in 2011 -- as much as 20 percent. He has also said that while he does not have oversight or control over the library system's budget, he would put branch closures on the agenda of possibilities for the system going forward.

Quinn-Carey said that collections and purchasing will be on the list of topics to consider for spending cuts, as will staffing and service levels. The possibility of closing locations is also part of the discussion, she said.

That would free up money for things like new digital titles and tools. But it will also roil the waters among library lovers in Western New York -- many of whom hotly protested any changes to their branch locations when the library system last went through a round of deep cost-cutting a few years ago.

"Does it mean reducing the hours we are open, scaling back the services, reducing the things collected or the types of the collections?" said Quinn-Carey. "All of those things will be looked at."

While the library seeks its answers, patrons said they will keep an anxious eye on what changes might be in the air.

"To me -- and I could tell you about quite a few people -- we are down here almost weekly," said Patricia Ricotta, a senior citizen from North Collins who was checking out some hardcover novels on a recent weekday afternoon.

"The alternative is, you go into Best Buy and Barnes & Noble and buy them. And that gets expensive."

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What are libraries buying to stock those shelves?

A look at recent spending by the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library system shows that money going to printed books in the 37 branches is down over the past three years, while spending on downloadable books has risen dramatically in that time.

Source: Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, budget statistics. Figures for 2010 spending are prorated.

Where are the branches, and how much do they cost?

The Buffalo & Erie County Public Library System currently includes 37 locations -- 36 branches plus Central. Costs for operating these local libraries vary, as do staffing levels.

(*Money for this library comes from the Town of Amherst, not the B&ECPL).

Source: Buffalo & Erie County Public Library budget data

cvogel@buffnews.comnull