clear
Sunday March 18th, 2018 3:25PM

Hall County Library System looks to expand hours at larger branches by fall

By B.J. Williams News Director
Thanks to revenue from passport services, the Hall County Library System (HCLS) is thinking it will be able to expand service hours later this year at its three largest branches.
 
Library System Director Lisa MacKinney said at a Tuesday night library board meeting that revenue generated from last July through April 30 of this year amounts to some $125,000 - a number much higher than the system had hoped for when the service began more than a year ago
 
MacKinney said opening up the passport office in January 2016 at the Blackshear Place Branch revitalized that facility.
 
"It kind of got lost during road work on Atlanta Highway because Blackshear Place's entrance changed," MacKinney said. "[But we knew] it was a perfect location for this program because it's right in the middle of the county. It just made perfect sense to situate it at such a convenient central location right off of I-985." 
 
Not only did the passport program drive traffic to the Blackshear Place Branch for that particular service, it also allowed patrons to rediscover the branch and begin using it for other services, according to MacKinney. 
 
Now, the additional business generated by the passport program should translate to expanded services for the overall system, services that were cut back during the economic downturn of 2008. 
 
"We want to get to more stable opening times every day of the week and then extend a couple of hours to a couple of nights during the week. We'd like to stay open until 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday instead of closing at 6 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays," MacKinney said.
 
MacKinney said the additional revenue from the passport program means the library board won't have to ask for additional funding from Hall County, the entity responsible for funding a large portion of library operations. 
 
"We're trying to use every penny of the revenue we're able to generate first. We don't want to go to the county with our hand out for more than we absolutely have to ask for because the county is still in a rebuilding phase, as well," MacKinney said.
 
Board members gave approval to the tentative budget, which included the plan to extend hours at three branches (the Main Branch in Gainesville, Spout Springs and Blackshear Place), knowing that the final budget would not be available until after Hall County completes its budget process.
 
Should everything go as planned, the extended hours would begin in September. 
 
 
  • Associated Categories: Homepage, Business News, Local/State News
  • Associated Tags: Hall County Library System, HCLS, passport service, expanded hours
© Copyright 2018 AccessWDUN.com
All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission.
Hall County Library System looks to expand hours at larger branches by fall
Thanks to revenue from passport services, the Hall County Library System is thinking it will be able to expand service hours later this year at at least three of its branches
2:30PM ( 20 minutes ago )
Gwinnett County opens new ME's office and morgue
Gwinnett County officials held a ribbon cutting Wednesday to mark the opening of a 15,000-square-foot Medical Examiner’s Office and Morgue in Lawrenceville with more space, improved technology and more efficient administrative capability.
1:00PM ( 1 hour ago )
AAA: Memorial Day travel hits highest level since 2005
The total number of Georgia travelers for Memorial Day weekend is expected to be 1.17 million, a 2.5 percent increase over last year, according to AAA.
5:31AM ( 9 hours ago )
Business News
US households owe record amount, topping pre-recession peak
US household debts reach record high, topping pre-recession peak, New York Fed says
1:52PM ( 57 minutes ago )
New Orleans takes down 3rd Confederate-era monument
Workers in New Orleans have taken down a Confederate monument to Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard, the third of four such statues to come down in the city
1:26PM ( 1 hour ago )
Braselton PD: Missing girl found safe in Buford
Braselton police are not discussing the circumstances surrounding the case of a 14-year-old girl who went missing from her home Tuesday afternoon, but they said she is safe and has been returned to her parents.
12:45PM ( 2 hours ago )
Local/State News
Hall County library offers old book repair clinic
The Hall County Library will host an old book repair clinic at the library's main branch in Gainesville on Wednesday.
By AccessWDUN Staff
6:00AM ( 4 days ago )
Boosted funding helps Hall Libraries add new content
The Hall County Library System has announced new material that are now on the facilities' shelves.
4:45PM ( 1 month ago )
Hall County Library System officials hoping for state grant to help with renovation funding
There are still some financial pieces of the puzzle to put together, but if all goes as planned, the renovation for the Hall County Library System's main branch in downtown Gainesville could get underway as soon as next year.
12:30PM ( 3 months ago )
'Sitting Up with the Dead' returns to Gainesville Jan. 13
Sitting Up with the Dead returns to the Gainesville branch of the Hall County Library System Jan. 13.
1:00PM ( 4 months ago )
Hall County Library System begins work on strategic plan update
For the next few months, the Hall County Library System (HCLS) will be working on an update to its strategic plan, and officials have started the process with an online community survey.
12:00PM ( 9 months ago )
http://accesswdun.com/article/2017/5/537605/hall-county-library-board-looks-to-expand-hours-by-fall
accesswdun.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2018-13
41191
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:FJCG3DCSDI6BNTJ7UFOVH5YQJ2XOPA2C
<urn:uuid:5f7aef7d-c562-4202-9715-d616a396fd42>
2018-03-18T19:25:01Z
198.101.128.147
text/html
sha1:ZXGVT3KP6MNK36VTNRHJHD5SBDU2GL57
<urn:uuid:a2b6ddda-8551-4c8f-b25d-017ab8e12a82>
http://accesswdun.com/article/2017/5/537605/hall-county-library-board-looks-to-expand-hours-by-fall
response
<urn:uuid:94ca212f-309d-4faa-a5a4-46b87e27a574>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-155-52-209.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2018-13
operator: Common Crawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for March 2018
publisher: Common Crawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf