The Friends of the Orcas Island Public Library held their annual meeting and open house on Sept. 26. They also discussed next steps in a possible library building extension, reviewed the library’s annual report for 2007 and gave the results of the recent library fair, and honored the library volunteers.
The Library Board is considering a possible building addition and has been conducting a survey at the library and online to gauge community support. The expansion might include adding space for a quiet reading room, a larger children’s area, the addition of study/tutoring rooms, more shelving, a computer lab, and more general use space.
The next steps will be for Library Trustees Lois Cornell and John Ashenhurst to assemble a “road show” presentation to be given at the library and other locations. The show will include proposed expansion drawings and cost and benefits, information on historic, current, and projected operating costs and a proposal for a levy lid lift and solicitation of additional input from the community on possible interest and support for the project.
In reviewing the Library’s 2007 Annual Report it was reported that the library had:
• 45,500 items in their collection, which is twice the national and state medians for public libraries serving communities the size of Orcas
• 28 annual visits per capita, four times the state and national averages
• 22 checkouts per capita, twice the state average
• Spent more than $15 on new materials per capita, more than twice the state average.
• Three librarians with ALA-accredited Masters’ degrees, more than that of any other library in the nation serving a community the size of Orcas.
“The fair netted almost $17,000 this year. That was $1,500 less than last year and we attributed it mostly to travel costs and the pinched economy. The book sale did better than last year by $1,000. We did $9,500 in book sales,” said Phil Heikkinen, Library Director.
The library’s more than 60 volunteers were thanked for their contribution during the evening in a presentation that told about the wide variety of experience, backgrounds and home towns that are represented among the volunteers.
