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Wicked Local
  • More use, tight budget at Scituate Town Library

  • The irony of working at a public library during an economic downturn, Scituate Town Library Director Kathy Meeker said, is that funding is held down at the same time as more people are using library services.

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  • The irony of working at a public library during an economic downturn, Scituate Town Library Director Kathy Meeker said, is that funding is held down at the same time as more people are using library services.
    “That’s the Catch-22 of it all,” she said. “Just as funding gets affected, people start needing the library.”
     
    Selectmen have approved a library budget of $916,256 for the fiscal year beginning July 1, up $14,932 from the current $901,324 budget. However, cuts in part-time and other salaries, as well as in spending on equipment and furnishings, partially offset the $48,569 increase in salaries for the library’s full-time staff.
     
    Meeker said the library has seen a large increase in usage as the economy has suffered.
    “We’re just booming,” she said.
     
    From July through December, the library experienced an 11 percent increase in items being checked out, compared to the year before. The winter book sale Jan. 24 and 25 was, according to Meeker, “busier than it has been in the past few years.” And 25 residents who Meeker described as “very interested” attended a recent résumé-writing seminar.
     
    “There were definitely there, and they weren’t just whistling Dixie,” she said.
     
    Meeker said the library staff is keeping the downturn in mind when planning future events. Because the résumé-writing seminar was so well attended — some residents came to the library to ask about it the next day — the library has planned another for March 19. Meeker said she hopes to also hold a seminar on writing cover letters in April.
     
    “We are keeping in mind what would be of interest to people,” she said.
     
    Meeker also said that she has noticed some residents turning to the library as they are attracted to cheep hobbies, such as book clubs and knitting.
     
    And then there is the fact that many things people buy, such as books and DVDs, are available for free from the library, which Meeker said people should take advantage of even in a good economy.
     
    “Those of us who use it all the time wonder why other’s don’t,” she said.
     
    Meeker said she has a formula for meeting the increasing needs of residents while still dealing with the decrease of available resources.
     
    “My argument would be do the best you can for as long as you can, because people need us,” she said.
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