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Library director outlines usage surge and staffing, equipment requests ahead of FY27 budget
Summary
Flower Mound Library Director Rachel Hadidi told council the library served 312,000 visitors last year and asked for staff and equipment to sustain growth: a community engagement coordinator, technical services librarian, outreach vehicle and additional collections funding.
Dr. Rachel Hadidi, director of the Flower Mound Library, briefed the Town Council on the library’s service levels and staffing needs ahead of next year’s budget deliberations.
Hadidi said the library now has roughly 38,000 cardholders, about 312,000 visits in the last fiscal year and 27,000 program attendees. The library has expanded its on‑site services — seven study rooms, two community rooms, a creation lab with 17 machines — and automated material handling that reduced return‑to‑shelf time from as many as seven days to typically 24 hours.
Requests and rationale: Hadidi asked council to consider the following items for FY27: a community engagement coordinator to handle outreach and partnerships; an additional technical‑services librarian to support increased processing; a library outreach vehicle to serve the new Fire Station 6 mini‑location and community events; and modest increases to physical and digital content lines to keep pace with demand. She explained digital content is recurring costlier than it used to be because publishers sell shorter‑term licenses for many e‑books.
Budget numbers cited: Hadidi said the library’s total operating budget is about $2.6 million and that Denton County contributes roughly $73,800 for county‑wide card services. She estimated the library’s digital content budget at about $110,000 and overall digital expenditures near $150,000 (including databases), with about $117,000 for physical content in the current year.
Council questions: Members asked why digital content is a repeat purchase rather than perpetual ownership (Hadidi said vendor licensing has changed, often requiring repurchase after a set number of checkouts or a two‑year term). Council asked about meeting‑room misuse (town policy prohibits exchanging money on town property), training for the creation lab (monthly trainings and staff support are provided), and fees comparison with peer cities (staff will provide more benchmarking in a future work session).
Next steps: Hadidi said staff will return to the council with proposed decision packages in the budget process. Councilmembers indicated support for exploring modest, targeted fees and for evaluating the outreach vehicle and community engagement position during budget workshops.
Quote: “We welcomed over 12,000 estimated total visitors to the Riverwalk over the course of the weekend,” the special‑events manager said earlier in the meeting in describing festival use of library outreach spaces; Hadidi later added, “we had 38,000 cardholders… 312,000 people visit us and we had 27,000 program attendees,” to frame the request for staffing and outreach resources.
Ending: Staff will include the library requests in FY27 decision packages and return them for council budget deliberations.
