Library hours reduced due to budget cuts

Special to the Journal
Effective July 6, the Dougherty County Public Library will reduce its hours of operation at all branch locations. Dwindling tax revenues have resulted in reductions to the library’s budget and it can no longer fill the staff positions necessary for regular operations, said Teresa Cole, director of the Dougherty County Public Library.

“We are funded by the county and like all county departments, our budget has been cut because of the current economic crisis,” she said.

Cole said the library has absorbed most of the current year’s 10-percent reduction behind the scenes, but next year’s budget, which goes into effect on July 1, will be reduced by an additional 5 percent and the library is running out of places to take the cuts.

“We had hoped to avoid having to do this, but at this point, we’ve been forced to make the hard decision to reduce the operating hours of all branches,” Cole said. The library will use the funding it would have used to fill recent vacancies to make up the budget cut, she said. However, this will leave the library too short-handed to staff its regular schedule.

Cole said that the library is fortunate to have volunteer workers; otherwise the reductions might have been more drastic.

“Last year our volunteers donated 3,839 hours to the library.  We are very lucky to have them,” she said.

To minimize the impact on the library’s patrons, the library staff has studied its usage statistics carefully, Cole said.

“The library will open a half hour later at all locations, and will close an hour earlier at Central and Northwest on the nights they’re open late” Cole said.

In addition, the library will close Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings, which are relatively quiet times, Cole said.

Sunday hours at Central will remain the same.

“We’ve tried to choose hours that would affect the community the least, but we do know that this is a major inconvenience to our patrons,” she said. “We are closely monitoring the situation and as soon as we are able to restore the hours, we will.”

New Library Hours Effective July 6, 2010