During the year 2001, customers of the Cobourg Public Library borrowed 218,770 items, a 5-per-cent increase over the previous year. We added 7,837 new items to the collections - a 16-per-cent increase. Customers used our Internet work stations 19,944 times, a huge increase of 222 per cent over the use in 2000. And finally, we offered 262 programs, not including visits to schools, representing a 9-percent increase in number over the previous year, which attracted 3,178 customers, an increase of 2 per cent over the year 2000.
These numbers represent some of the quantifiable elements of the work we do. Although these figures only partially reflect our services, they are services that we monitor to determine whether our customers continue to find us useful in their lives.
It is important that the citizens of Cobourg and Hamilton Township, the library's primary funders, believe that the library provides good value for the cost to community members. In 2001, the municipal portion of the average $2,309 residential tax bill in Cobourg was $1,268, or 54.9 per cent of the bill. Of this amount $55, or $4.58 per month, was allocated to your public library (source: Town of Cobourg web site at http://www.town.cobourg.on.ca/taxes.html).
This figure, although it varies as do the tax bills, represents a per-household charge. Everyone in every household is eligible to take advantage of the Library’s services for the average price of $55 per year.
Our material costs vary and some of our materials have been donated. But even if we assign a low average value of $12 to every item borrowed last year, these borrowed items would represent a total value of $2,625,240 for which citizens did not have to pay additional funds. It is not as simple to assign a financial value to the reference services, programming or reader's advisory that we offer. It is difficult to measure the impact that a knowledgeable, courteous staff member can have when placing the right item into the hands of a child. We cannot know the long-term impact that teaching an adult to efficiently use our computer resources to seek employment may have. We do know that it is important to our community that we continue to strive to meet our mission: to give all those who require and seek a forum for knowledge, information and educational recreation an opportunity to do so.
We understand that it is necessary to continue to improve and enhance our services in a cost-effective manner.
Staff and library board trustees work hard to ensure that we stay relevant to our users. Examining the trends of customer use is only one way of monitoring our performance. We also look forward to receiving feedback from our clients and partners. We take your comments and recommendations seriously and encourage you to continue to make them. We look forward to public library.
SUBMITTED BY DONNA BRIGHT
