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Library Moves Up Due Dates For Materials

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By Carl  Orth | The Suncoast News

Published: September 24, 2008

HUDSON - Faced with less money, the Pasco County Library System is trying to get more out of its existing collection.

To that end county librarians have shortened the due date on books and other materials from one month to two weeks.

The change is an experiment that will continue through the end of October, Libraries Director Linda Allen said.

Libraries everywhere are trying to cope with a reduction in revenue after Florida voters approved Amendment No. 1 changes to the state's property tax system in January, Allen remarked. Pasco started closing branches an hour earlier on most nights as the first step in conserving dollars.

More cutbacks might become necessary, Allen says.

One Pasco resident, Trinity-area retiree Peggy Holder, doesn't like the shorter return policy.

Holder had been in the habit of driving her mother, Ethel Winchester, 94, once a month to the Centennial Park Branch Library. Winchester would stock up with about half a dozen, large-print books for the month.

But then the due date on many books had been shortened from 28 days to 14 days, Holder complains. That means two trips a month now.

"It's the gas that kills me" for the trips from her Seven Springs Boulevard home to the county library branch on Moog Road. Holder, 66, is living on a fixed income.

"This is an experiment," Allen said about the two-week due dates. "It's not a done deal."

Best-selling novels and other new titles in high demand have always been limited to two weeks for borrowers, Allen pointed out. But the vast majority of books and materials in the "general collection" had been 28 days until the past few months.

The two-week limit has been imposed on everything, except DVDs which are loaned for seven days.

"We apologize for this, but we have no way of finding out if this works unless we try it," Allen commented. "We're asking people to bear with us."

Books and other materials on loan can be renewed past two weeks by phone or on the library system's Web site, Allen noted.

The library system is trying to stretch resources, Allen continued. "We're able to purchase less materials. We have fewer things on the shelves."

In fiscal 2007, the library got $1,327,407 to buy new materials, Allen said. In the current budget, the amount dropped to $1,094,208. The proposed fiscal 2009 budget, set to go into effect Oct. 1, would scale it back to $790,000.

"They can't give us what they don't have," Allen said about Pasco County commissioners, who have the final say on the budgets of county departments.

"It's not just us," Allen said of public agencies having to cope with less tax revenue. "It's everywhere."

Hillsborough County, for example, intends to charge a $100 annual fee per household for library borrowers who reside outside of Hillsborough, Allen noted.

"We don't have a library in Trinity," Allen explained. "We don't have a library in Wesley Chapel." So many of those Pasco residents had resorted to going to libraries in other counties which often were closer.

For instance, many Wesley Chapel residents live closer to Hillsborough's New Tampa library than Pasco's Land O' Lakes branch.

"Libraries are not a mandated service," Allen noted. "It's a courtesy of the government."

Pasco library patrons who dislike the new due-date policy can write their complaints on comment cards at any branch. The library Web site also has a "suggestion box" for comments. The suggestion Web page is at http://pascolibraries.org/suggestionbox.shtml.

Holder, the Trinity resident, was unaware of the written comment cards, since she doesn't own a computer.

"There has to be another way," she said.

The libraries director was less certain. "Further cuts may be in the wind," Allen said with a sigh. Options might include reducing hours even more, she said.

Nobody can predict the future thanks to this "economic mess," Allen said.

Carl Orth can be reached at 727-815-1068 or corth@suncoastnews.com.

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