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Escondido library reports steady visits at mall sites; collection budgets and Link+ funding face uncertainty
Summary
Library director reported that visits and circulation at temporary mall locations are holding steady, the collection budget will propose modest increases to Hoopla and Libby/OverDrive allocations, and a $5,000 Society of American Archivists grant will support a Latino oral history project in the Pioneer Room.
Reno, the Escondido library director, told the Board of Trustees that visitor counts and circulation at the library's temporary mall locations are close to levels seen at the main library and that staff expect clearer trends after June data are fully processed.
"Even with the challenges of communication, getting people to know that we have moved, we are still open, we are at the mall, where we are at the mall, where to park, all those challenges, we are still seeing a pretty close attendance level," Reno said.
Reno said the library's collection budget draft for the coming year will include modest increases for Hoopla and allocations back to OverDrive/Libby and print collections. He noted Hoopla downloads are largely driven by the size of the fund available and that usage spikes at the beginning of each month as patrons redeem monthly allowances.
The director flagged potential indirect impacts from federal funding shifts affecting regional consortium services such as Link Plus. "It means we will probably have to either feed into our operating funds or our collection funds to maintain a Link Plus," Reno said. He said the cooperative governing Link Plus will meet later in the month to consider options and that the library does not anticipate immediate disruption to services within the next two fiscal years.
On archives and special collections, Reno said the city accepted a $5,000 catalyst grant from the Society of American Archivists for a project titled "Latinos and Escondido World History" to fund voice recorders, editing software and other equipment to capture oral histories for the Pioneer Room. He said the project aims to record and archive oral histories, produce transcripts and make the material publicly available when appropriate. Staff also noted a yearlong exhibit of library and Historical Society material at the San Diego airport is planned.
Reno said staff will return with more detailed demographic breakdowns of who is visiting and registering for library cards once additional months of data are available.
