By HOLLY GASKILL
Conversations between the Wells County Public Library and the county commissioners have been tense in recent months. However, during the commissioners’ meeting Monday, both parties intended to put it to rest.
John Stauffer, member of the library’s Board of Trustees, led the initiative, saying that recent conversations between the groups have shown a need for increased communication. Board members Dustin Brown and Matt Yergler were in attendance, as well as library Director Sarah MacNeill and Adult Services Manager Jason Habegger.
Stringer indicated that these recent conversations include the criticism the following the commissioners’ recent appointment of Yergler to the library board of trustees.
“I think we have a lot of boards that are people are just getting along to go along, and that’s not what we need,” Stringer said. “We need diversity in all things, so we’re challenging each other and improving our community — the library is one of those (things).”
Both the commissioners and library representatives agreed quarterly updates would be helpful in their relationship and understanding moving forward.
While the library has been giving quarterly reports to the County Council for approximately two years, this information has not been brought to the commissioners. Both the council and commissioners appoint two positions to the library board trustees.
MacNeill then walked through the library’s 2022 report, which was presented to the County Council at their Feb. 6 meeting.
Although the library experienced an overall hit to userbase due to COVID-19, the 2022 yearly report shows the beginnings of a bounceback — the library issued 876 new cards, and circulation of physical materials is up 9.26 percent from 2021. This places general circulation at just 3 percent shy of 2019 statistics.
That said, some areas of the library show tremendous growth as the library has adapted to patrons’ needs.
For example, book-a-librarian services have increased by 143 percent. This free opportunity allows patrons to schedule one-on-one time with a librarian for assistance in computer skills, genealogy research, tax season assistance and more.
Patrons have also become more comfortable using or learning to use e-materials, which increased usage by 7.61 percent from 2019. Within this increase, e-audiobook usage has increased by 90 percent from 2019, and e-books have increased by 71 percent from 2019.
The library has also begun offering multiple new electronic resources, including the addition of Hoopla, a streaming service for audiobooks, comics, e-books, movies, music and TV. Other new resources added included virtual reality headsets, virtual reality children’s non-fiction books, board games, and a variety of Ukrainian and Russian materials.
Stauffer emphasized how the library offers diverse programming and materials to benefit the county but doesn’t often brag about itself.
“Going through these statistics, there’s a number of things highlighted that I didn’t know, so thank you for this information,” Commissioner Mike Vanover said.
“The increased communication we’ve had with the county council over the past two years has laid the groundwork for a lot of cooperation there, and I’m happy to see we’re making that step through,” Brown said.
holly@news-banner.com
