About Us The community we serve. The majority of our patrons are - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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About Us

The community we serve….

The majority of our patrons are Decatur City residents, while the second largest component live outside the city in Morgan County.

Later…..

Decatur City Ordinance Number 443-

adopted December 16th, 1946

Be it ordained by the City Council of the City

• f Decatur, Alabama, as follows:

That there is hereby established by the City of Decatur, Alabama a free public library for the use of the citizens of the city as authorized by Code of Alabama of 1940, Section 285 of Title

• 55. (current city ordinance section 13-1)
• In 1963, the library joined the Wheeler

Basin co-op while still distinguished as Decatur Public Library

• Current building constructed in 1974
• Separated from the Wheeler Basin

co-op in 2008 Serving the city of Decatur for over 100 years!

Decatur Public Library….a very brief history

• First library building completed in 1904 as a Carnegie Library

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Budget

Mitigating challenges!

FY 2015 through FY 2020

Increased costs & expenses

• Books, Materials, Digital, & Online Resources up 17%
• General Expenses up 33%
• building maintenance
• contents insurance
• vehicle insurance
• hardware-technology
• phone services

Income impacts County appropriation & TVA funding Severe drops and fluctuations between both Down 19% overall Downsizing

• Eliminated one-third of our work force
• Consolidated departments and staff duties
• Optimized our service hours

What we’ve done

Our local residents have busy lives, a variety of information and educational needs, and we are here to meet them!

Streamlining Our Operations Launching New Services Meeting Community Demands

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• Automating paper driven

processes

• Restructuring behind-the-

scenes tasks

• Eliminating antiquated practices

as well as wasteful steps

• Updating techniques & cross

training staff

• Improving efficiency &

workflow on the business side as well as our front line

• Reducing costs
• Assessing outcome & impact

through regular statistics as well surveying

• Utilizing a data-driven decision

model to continually strengthen patron services

• Supporting the early-literacy,

educational, technology, information access, and enrichment needs for all residents of the Decatur community from babies to pre-K, students of all ages, adults, and seniors.

• Improving online

access to library materials & services

• Emphasizing

convenience for patrons

• Enhancing the overall

end-user experience

• Providing quality

customer service to the community that we serve

New Services, Convenience, Access!

Making Decatur Public Library more convenient and accessible than ever! We migrated 221,809 bibliographic, item, patron, and transaction records to new open source library software and implemented several new features. As a result, patrons can now:

• Receive library notices via text or email
• Place reserves for materials on our shelves online -

library staff will pull them, and notify users when the items are ready for pickup the same day!

• Place holds on DVDs for pickup
• Reserve on-order titles in advance!
• Apply for a library card online!
• View your library account online to view checkouts,

renew materials, create reading lists, and much more!

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Get those new books on the shelves!

Getting new materials and resources in the hands of the public FASTER!

• Automating book, audio book, & DVD ordering
• Reducing materials processing by pre-loading multiple

catalog records at one time

• Cross training staff to check invoices and cataloging

accuracy RESULTS

• Books, audiobooks, & DVDs are out of the box and on

the shelves within 24-48 hours of delivery

• We have bestsellers and high demand items before

the publishers’ “street date” just as large retail bookstores

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myDPL.org

Offering a wide variety of online resources and information for local residents with active lives. We moved our entire website as well as email to an upgraded content management system and implemented a much needed domain name change:

• Old website address: www.decatur.lib.al.us
• Old email address: director@decatur.lib.al.us
• New website and email:

mydpl.org director@mydpl.org

• User friendly interface for patrons & staff
• Best of all: IT’S EASY TO REMEMBER!!

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So what IS all the Hoopla?

Decatur Public Library’s newest online service!

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• Over 600,000 titles available
• Web or Mobile
• You can stream titles instantly

through your desktop browser or

• ur mobile app.
• If you use our mobile app, you

can also download titles to your device for offline playback later, where Wi-Fi may be unavailable. Titles are automatically returned and removed from your device at the end of the lending period.

• Works with major streaming TV

providers

Check this out!

No more waiting in line!

Thanks to a Library Service & Technology Act grant we were able to purchase a second self-checkout kiosk to place near

• ur busy Youth Services area!
• Parents no longer have wait in lines to check out

materials for their family

• Children LOVE the technology & the empowerment to

checkout out materials on their own (parents love this too!)

• Using RFID (radio-frequency identification)

technology, patrons can check out an entire stack of books at one time!

• Staff are free to provide more qualitative service to

patrons needing help with research, technology, and

• ther inquires.
• The LSTA grant also enabled the purchase of

additional RFID pads allowing for faster direct checkout assistance from staff at our Public Services as well as Youth Services desks.

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Literacy & Dividends for Future Success!

Studies have shown that children who read (or are read to) 20 minutes or more per day, consistently score in the 90 percentile or higher on standardized tests and perform better academically. Why? Because they are exposed to over 1,800,000 words per year.

Early Literacy Programming FY 2018

• 88 programs
• 2,069 attended
• 23,950 easy reader books circulated!

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Creating a strong foundation for our students…

• This year DPL held 14 library tours for

735 students who learned about library programs, print & online resources, and most importantly that our services are FREE!

• Ongoing materials exchange with teachers
• Outreach to parents through PTA events

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SUMMER

JUNE & JULY 2019

What we did this

63 Programs & Events 41,448 items borrowed 4,285 reference questions answered! 12,540 internet sessions 9,763 digital downloads 4,063 people attended books read

Kids registered for DPL’s Summer Reading Program

23,461 VISITS TO THE LIBRARY

Programming!!

It’s not just for kids! Readers & Writers Jubilee

• 21 local authors
• Panel featuring NYT Best-selling authors Linda Howard & Linda

Winstead Jones

• 10 workshops focused on the craft and business of writing for

multiple genres

• Local author meet & greet: patrons were able to interact with

authors firsthand

• 507 attended: we had visitors from across the region including

Tennessee, Cullman, Birmingham, Mobile, & Florida!

WWI Veterans Day Program

• 100th anniversary of WWI
• Integrated ceremony honoring the 18 troops

whose families received memorial certificates from France

• 130 attended
• Several local officials as well as community

leaders participated

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And even more …

• Craft of book art folding
• Art of Indian Henna
• Adult Reading Challenge Book

Clubs

• Christmas Open House
• Family Movie Night

Extravaganzas

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… and more programming!

Topics & Programs

• Forrest Emory Burleson and Charlie Williams: An Adventure in

Friendship and Educational Service

• Where There’s a Need: The Spiritualism and Philanthropy of

Daisy Nolan, from Old Town to Decatur and Beyond

• Morgan County Courthouses
• Project Apollo: One of Man’s Greatest Achievements
• The Al Keith Band
• The Tennessee River and Northwest
• The Life and Times of Andrew Jackson
• Movie Night & Discussion Panel
• James Longstreet: General Lee’s “Old War Horse”
• John Dersham’s My Alabama

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As well as a wide variety of services for adults!

348

class attendees

63

computer classes in FY 2018

1,163

patrons received

free tax help at

DPL in 2019

through our RSVP program partners Adult patrons borrowed 53,428 print books in FY 2018

2,162 adults

attended 55 programs in FY 2018

20,931 reference

questions answered for our adult patrons in FY 2018!

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We’re growing!

DPL FY 2018 REFERENCE QUESTIONS ANSWERED

23,817

20,101

DPL FY 2019 TITLE RESERVES

4,570

2,134

7%

FROM FY 2017

18%

FROM FY 2013

114%

FROM FY 2013

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… and growing!

204%

FROM FY 2013

380%

FROM FY 2012

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We’re everywhere!

Connecting with the community outside our doors!

DPL Outreach FY 2018 53 Visits To 31 Local organizations Attended by 6,553 people

Cultivating partnerships

DPL maintains over 51 partnerships throughout the community and engages in continual outreach programs outside our doors.

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2017 Freegal online music service $ 7,338.00 2018 Library Migration/New automation system $ 11,500.00 Overdrive downloadable eBooks $ 3,820.00 Freegal online music/Rocket Languages $ 4,216.50 Total $ 19,536.50 2019 (Projected) Hoopla Digital Service $ 4,000.00 Patron Counting Software $ 2,784.90 Total $ 6,784.90

2017 Programming (Adult & Children) $ 11,885.83 Marketing $ 3,134.89 LSTA grant local match/computer cabling $ 12,849.00 eBooks $ 8,000.00 Movie license $ 1,650.00 Staff conference & workshops $ 661.81 Total $ 38,181.53 2018 Programming (Adult & Children) $ 7,363.62 Marketing $ 2,900.00 LSTA grant local match $ 3,750.00 eBooks, Freegal music, & Rocket languages $ 12,216.50 Library signage $ 8,609.36 Movie license $ 1,424.76 Staff conference & workshops $ 1,281.73 Total $ 37,545.97 2019 (Projected) Programming (Adult & Children) $ 10,500.00 Marketing $ 4,200.00 LSTA grant local match $ 5,000.00 eBooks, Freegal music, Hoopla Digital $ 12,000.00 Staff conference & workshops $ 3,850.00 Total $ 35,550.00

A STRONG FOUNDATION AND GREAT FRIENDS…

Projects & Services Funded

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During FY 2018….

• Over 417 people per day came through our doors
• We circulated 184,233 materials
• DPL staff answered 23,817 reference questions
• We provided 63 free computer classes attended by 348 participants
• Our library website had 942,687 visits
• We offered 281 programs attended by 19,091 residents
• Patrons downloaded 38,807 ebooks and audiobooks
• Cardholders downloaded and streamed 10,637 songs
• Patrons took advantage of 77,312 internet sessions

FREE to ALL residents of Decatur City and Morgan County

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Coming soon!

Plans for the upcoming year…

• Strengthening our online resources budget to mitigate the

ever-growing demand for downloadable ebooks, audiobooks, music, and research databases.

• Offering a wide variety of programming and community
• utreach to enrich the lives of local citizens, emphasizing early

literacy, job skills, and technology.

• Improving our IT budget to support the increased public

demands of our network infrastructure and computer hardware needs. We currently have 27 public access computers that we maintain as well as multiple software packages, 5 servers, network switches, patch panels, public self-check machines, as well as a robust wi-fi network.

• Enhancing our print materials budget to meet increased

community requests and to update large segments of our collection that are worn and outdated.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME!