BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
GREEN COVE SPRINGS— Clay County Director of Library Services Karen Walker told county commissioners that although the county’s library system plans to use its entire allocation from the state’s Aid-to-Libraries grant to purchase e-books this year, the libraries need additional funding from the county to continue to modernize its collections.
Last month, Walker reviewed an analysis of the collections with commissioners which showed:
—The medical, legal, computer, health and science collections, in both adult and juvenile, contained outdated information. Many of the sections will need more than 75% of their material replaced to bring them up to date.
—Between March 2020 and January 2022, the libraries increased digital content by 77% and patron checkouts by 62%.
—Of 13 surrounding public libraries, the county ranked last in e-books with only 2,224 titles on hand. By comparison, the New River system, which includes Bradford, Union and Baker counties had 167,622 e-book titles. Since the survey was completed, Clay has more than doubled its number of e-book titles.
—COVID shifted checkouts from print to digital in all categories through 2020, although fiction genres, except Young Adult, continue to circulate better in print than e-book format.
—If the libraries weeded and replaced titles according to one industry standard, it would have to replace more than 75% of its collection. Generally, the libraries jettison titles that have less than three checkouts the previous year,
—Currently the libraries have 1,178 holds on digital material—e-book and e-audiobook— and an average wait time of 38 days, while it has 735 holds on physical material.
—Now, bestsellers have a hold wait of between 43 to 74 days. If the libraries were to purchase these additional copies outright, it would cost $2,000 per month and leave the system with shelf space, storage and weeding issues as their popularity diminishes. Alternatively, the libraries plan to lease up to 40 titles per year at an annual cost of $8,395. Using leased copies gives the system the flexibility to meet current goals and constantly refresh titles based on demand.
—While libraries generally pay less than retail for hard copy books: $14.14 per title with an average retail price of $24.78, they pay nearing three times retail for e-books- retail: $15, library cost: $40.
—The libraries offer over 3,000 magazine titles in digital format at a cost of $5,000 annually. There were 464 digital magazine checkouts in December 2021 and 521 in January of 2022.
—To accomplish its goals, the libraries are requesting an increase in its collection budget from the current $325,000 a year to around $500,000 for each of the next five years.
Walker told commissioners during their April 12 meeting that she is prioritizing the e-book collection because it is the area that is in the most need.
“It is also, honestly, the quickest fix,” she told commissioners, “because when you order the material, as soon as you hit the button it downloads and we have that in our collection.”
Walker added that the library ordered 604 e-book titles on March16, “and 99.5% of those have checked out already. Within a couple of hours, 48 of them had been checked out. The need is definitely there.”
