Tom Wilcox of Carrollton reads a newspaper Thursday at the Neva Lomason Memorial Library. Wilcox visits the library one to two times a week to read and his wife volunteers with the Friends of the Library. (Photo by Winston Jones/Times-Georgian)
The new schedule is a result of budget cuts.
The library will be closed all day on Fridays, but will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays, according to Roni Tewksbury, director of the West Georgia Regional Library System. Currently, the library is open only from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays.
Monday through Thursday hours will remain 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday hours will remain 2-6 p.m., she said.
“We had a $40,000 cut in funding from the city of Carrollton and we’ve lost some staff members,” Tewksbury said. “We’re finding it necessary to cut some hours.”
She said a recent survey showed that people wanted the library to stay open longer on Saturdays, so three extra Saturday hours were added to help compensate for the Friday closings.
“We hope this is just a temporary measure and funding will be restored in the near future, so we can add back the hours we had to cut,” Tewksbury said.
She noted that the roof repair work is nearing completion.
“I’m grateful the city of Carrollton and the county were able to give us $35,000 each toward the roof work,” she said. “We received about $70,00 from the state in a matching grant.”
Tewksbury said the long-awaited addition of e-books to the library’s circulation should be ready to go in about three weeks.
“It’s in an experimental stage right now,” she said. “It looks really good so far, but we want to get all the kinks worked out before we open it to the public.”
She said the library has purchased more than 500 e-titles, which are being held in a “cloud” library. These books include children and young adult titles, but are mostly adult books, she added.
Under the e-book checkout system, patrons will be able to use their current library cards and PIN numbers. The checked-out books will remain on the reading device for two to three weeks, then disappear.
Tewksbury reported earlier this year that the library remains one of the busiest places in the community.
During the Fiscal Year 2011, nearly 1.5 million items were circulated by the library system’s 15 branches in Carroll, Douglas, Haralson, Heard and Paulding counties. Circulation included books, CDs, DVD movies and other items. Computers were used more than 258,000 times in that year.
The first new library to be built in the region in 25 years was opened last November in Douglas County. The 15,800-square-foot Dog River Library sits on a 900-acre wooded county lot, off Highway 5, near Dog River.
Post a Comment