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Daly City library reports rising visits after restored hours; staff cite staffing, programming and e-resources
Summary
Library staff told trustees that visits and some branch circulation are recovering after restored hours at John Daly and Bayshore; staff highlighted gate counts, growing e-resource usage, exterior Wi-Fi hotspots, and staffing limits to further hour restorations.
Daly City Public Library staff told trustees on Nov. 19 that visits and some circulation measures are trending upward after the system restored hours at the John Daly and Bayshore branches in fiscal 2022-23, but staffing and budget constraints limit immediate further expansions.
At the meeting, staff presented multi-year charts showing visits (gate counts), physical-circulation trends, program attendance and per-capita expenditures. Staff said gate counts come from entry/exit sensors and are reported to the state; they highlighted a steep dip tied to the 2016-17 staffing changes and the pandemic-era declines, and a rebound after hours were restored. Staff also said electronic-resource usage (Libby/OverDrive and other licensed e-resources such as O'Reilly) has risen sharply and contributes to lower physical checkouts for some categories.
Staff described efforts to expand access: exterior Wi-Fi hotspots were installed at the Ceremony and Bayshore branches with county assistance so patrons can access the network from outside the buildings; the network is available roughly 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Staff said story times remain well attended while other program attendance varies by season and event type. Per-capita spending rose in recent years, the presenter said, primarily because personnel costs increased and the state-reported service population figure used in the per-capita calculation declined.
Trustees asked how Libby licensing and cross-catalog availability work; staff explained that e-materials are licensed on differing terms (perpetual, time-limited, checkout-limited) and that larger systems sometimes buy more copies, affecting hold times. Trustees discussed the goal of restoring weekend hours at individual branches (for example, Saturday hours at Ceremony and Monday hours at Westlake) but staff said additional positions and budgetary support would be required.
No vote was taken on hours at the Nov. 19 meeting; staff framed restorations as a fiscal and staffing objective the board can pursue with city budget support.
