With increased popularity of vinyl locally and nationally, we decided to try it (again), on a really small scale. The allotment for vinyl was about .2% of our materials budget and .03% of our total budget. Lost Weekend, Spoonful and Used Kids helped us out a little, too. We offer a variety of media formats and will try new and different formats if we see a potential in usage. We’re constantly keeping stats on usage, and looking at circulation and larger trends to see what our patrons want. Of course, how often our services and materials are used determines whether we continue providing them. Half of the vinyl collection was checked out the first day it was offered (Friday); who knows where it’ll go from there. We thought it was a good fit for Grandview. Sure, they’ll get scuffed, but that’s nothing new, from DVDs that looked like they’ve been used to polish rocks (sure, you can blame some of the cases) to unspeakably soiled books (Youth Services has lots of stories). It comes with the territory. We’re always exploring more digital services, including music downloads. Last summer, we were the first Ohio library to get Freegal (free music downloads to keep from Sony), and it’s been a hit – 5,000 downloads in six months, and for the first four months we were limited to offering 133/week. Since 2005, we've offered a collection of downloadable books, movies, and (classical) music for borrowing. Local CDs are generously donated to the Library, though buying more to have a deep collection is an idea. Historically, they don’t check out much. We added 20 or so from one donation last year. Surely we’re missing many good titles. The Grandview Library was hopping in 2010. We saw a double-digit increase in our total circulation for 2010, including increases in music (16% CDs & Freegal - Freegal was responsible for most of the increase), books (18%), digital books (24%), graphic novels (40%), Blu-rays (153%), and video games for adults (133%). (DVDs were up 3%.) Plus, we offered self-checkout machines, a mobile website (mobile catalog coming soon), email/text alerts, better WiFi, passed a levy, and were recognized as one of the nation’s best public libraries – all a year after big reductions in budget, staff, and hours. We have Grandview Heights & Marble Cliff and our patrons to thank for all that, and we try to stay attentive to what they want from their library. Sorry if this rambled into a big library thing. Just wanted to show what we’re up to, and how we make decisions about the services we provide for the public. We thought the time was right for offering a few records at the library, and we hope people enjoy having them to check out.
|