Library budget has no fees, more books

Fort Vancouver Regional Library managers plan to spend $60,000 on a Freegal downloadable music contract that allows users to download MP3-compatible music at no cost: Three songs per week, a maximum 156 per year — to keep for a lifetime.

“This will be quite popular,” predicted Melinda Chesbro, FVRL content management director.

She expects the Freegal service to become available in Clark County branches by June.

It’s already in use in the Multnomah County Library system, which has a handy FAQ website: http://www.multcolib.org/services/tech/freegal/.

A tentative 2011-12 operating budget adopted Monday by the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District includes plenty of new carrots for customers, without a stick in sight.

That includes no late fees on books.

At their daylong retreat session at the Cascade Park Community Library, FVRL board members heard how managers intend to boost collections of popular hard-copy books and electronic databases and introduce a slew of digital services starting in June, thanks to $3.31 million from a property tax bump approved by voters last year.

The new offerings will include downloadable e-books, audiobooks, streaming video and music — as many as three songs a week, for lifetime use.

About $1.76 million of the levy dollars from a property tax increase in effect this year will go to restore all operating hours and days at branch libraries that were reduced in early 2009. Those changes will come May 1 (the new downtown Vancouver Community Library opens with seven-day service in July).

The $890,000 invested in new collections should begin to appear in branches the following month, and to blossom this summer.

Already, a few branches have piloted a “Lucky Day” display of best-seller-type books that will give patrons a chance to snare a “hot read” without needing to place a hold and wait for the first available copy. These will replicate across the 13-branch regional system that stretches from Woodland to Goldendale.

What patrons won’t see: Any new fees on overdue items.

In late 2009, the library district took steps to speed up return of items and to knock down overdue rates and long waits for items on hold that had frustrated many patrons.

Initial overdue notices are sent now after seven days, rather than 14. At 28 days, items are declared “lost” and a collections bill is mailed, rather than at 60 days. Patrons are blocked from new checkouts when lost book charges reach $25, rather than $40. Readers also can more easily renew their own overdue books (if there are no hold requests for that item).

The changes have worked. FVRL’s overdue rate has dropped from 28 percent to about 16 percent; about half of those items are overdue by less than a week. That puts FVRL in the vicinity of other library systems that don’t charge overdue fees, which the district has been loath to impose in its half-century of service.

Since the board’s stated goal was never to pump up revenue with fees (projected annual fee collections were $250,000 to $350,000) but rather, to improve turnaround time, Executive Director Bruce Ziegman suggested discussion of overdue fees be tabled for the foreseeable future.

He did recommend the district keep close tabs on overdue rates and hold times.

“I don’t see a compelling reason” that argues in favor of new overdue fees, Ziegman said.

While the district now has software capability to collect fines, the burden on branch employees would be unwelcome, he said. Shaking down customers for quarters or a few dollars doesn’t jibe with FVRL’s push toward self-service, either — notably seen at the Cascade Park branch, where visitors complete about 90 percent of all checkouts by self-service, he said.

There’s also that new property tax increase. “We would be perceived by some people, if not many people, as nickel-and-diming them after we just won a new levy,” Ziegman said.

In a competitive environment, fees would make libraries “less inviting” and add “one more headache for parents to worry about,” he said.

Board members agreed.

“We need to keep a tight watch on this,” said Merle Koplan, part of an internal task force that explored fees policy. “We’ve increased the public awareness of our expectations of them: We do expect these books back, in a timely fashion.”

Salaries still frozen

Koplan and her board mates gave initial approval to a new 2011-12 district operating budget to run May 1 through April 2012. (That’s a new shift from a Jan. 1 through Dec. 31 fiscal year).

The “baseline” operating budget of $18.2 million would be just $575 above last year’s level.

The $3.31 million collected in 2011 from the levy lid increase will be budgeted separately. About $662,000 will be put in reserve to shelter the fund from declining revenue in future years. The rest goes to the restored branch service, and to the new books and other collection items.

Helping to keep the operating budget flat: A new, three-year labor agreement ratified on Monday that holds 125 library employees at their current pay for three more years (with potential contract “re-openers” each year).

Administrative staff also again will see no pay raise. Included are Ziegman and Business Manager Patty Duitman, who agreed two years ago to a 2.5 percent cut in base salary, which has remained frozen.

Final budget approval is due at the FVRL board meeting on May 9.

Howard Buck: 360-735-4515 or howard.buck@columbian.com.