The Wood County District Public Library is going to review future rental of its atrium.
Part of the library’s strategic plan calls for evaluating the use of library space for public rental.
“We are becoming tighter and tighter in terms of space,” said library Director Michael Penrod at Monday’s board of trustees meeting.
The policy committee will start the study and report back to the board, he said.
“Is it our job to provide space for people to have a birthday party,” Penrod asked. “It’s harder and harder for us to find the space needed to do what we’re doing.”
He said that more bookshelves are needed, and the library is doing more programs, he said.
While it is easy to set up a meeting room where tables and chairs are already there, the atrium is more problematic, he said.
Penrod said the library has a smaller maintenance staff than pre-COVID and clearing out all the shelves for a party takes hours of staff time.
Trustee Ellen Dalton confirmed the space would continue to be used for library programs, like piano recitals and author visits.
“I think that the atrium is a critical, wonderful resource to this organization,” said Trustee Brian Paskvan, who asked that the policy be looked at further.
“I’m not saying we have to accommodate every recital, but I think those types of things bring people into this organization that have never come into the building,” he said.
He mentioned the grand piano that sits in the atrium that would not be used if the space if filled with book shelves.
Penrod said he anticipated as early as four years from now the library will need to have permanent shelving in the atrium.
The atrium was rented two-three times a week pre-COVID, so the room was left set up, he said.
He recalled the atrium left set up for four weeks because of demand prior to the pandemic.
“It was being used so much we didn’t have the staff time to take it up, take it down,” he said, and added it takes up to three hours to set up and then two hours for cleanup.
Since COVID, the city doesn’t use the space anymore, so demand has gone down, he said.
“If birthday parties aren’t part of our mission, that’s fine,” Paskvan said, “but that atrium … is one of the most beautiful spaces for musical events.
“I want us to be very thoughtful about it. It’s been a really great space and a lot of people have used it,” he said.
Also at the meeting, Deputy Director Michele Raine reported that digital circulation was up and accounted for almost 23% of total circulation in 2023.
Circulation of youth materials is up, she said, accounting for 20% of Libby users and 26% of Hoopla users.
Raine said Libby for WCDPL is for Wood County library card holders and their demand for digital materials.
Rather than wait three months in the Ohio Digital Library for a new John Grisham novel, Wood County library card holders may not have to wait at all when using Libby for WCDPL, she said.
“Our people go to the front of the line,” she said.
It cost the library $94,311 in 2023 for Libby for WCDPL material, $26,973 for Ohio Digital Library materials and $63,402 for Hoopla checkouts.
“We were spending about $100,000 in ODL and getting about the same number of circulations. And people were waiting months on hold lists,” Penrod said. “I now take that same amount of money and use it (for our own use).”
Print circulation is doing quite well, Raine said.
Medicine, health, gardening and cookbooks are the most popular non-fiction checkouts, and mystery tops the fiction list, she said.
Nothing has killed the DVD yet, but the use of physical audiobooks, magazines and music has dropped so much the library has trimmed what it is purchasing, Penrod said.
“Will we even be buying physical audiobooks, magazines and music in two years,” he said.
