The Board of Trustees approved the reduction in operating hours during a called meeting on Monday, April 27.
The main library will no longer be open on Saturdays, while the Westgate location will move to a Tuesday through Saturday schedule. The reason behind the change is a loss in about $99,000 in revenue from passport processing, a service the library offered until February of this year.
On Feb. 14, the U.S. State Department directed the library system to suspend its passport processing services. The directive stems from the Department’s interpretation of the 1920 Passport Act, which excludes nonprofit, non-governmental public libraries from serving as passport application processing facilities. Approximately 1,400 public libraries nationwide were affected. The financial impact is significant given the library’s already limited local government support.
Among Alabama’s ten most populous cities, public libraries receive an average of $35.97 per capita in local government funding. Statewide, the average public library receives $27.31 per capita. By contrast, the Dothan Houston County Library System receives just $11.34 per capita, making self-generated revenue, such as passport fees, critical to maintaining core services. Chris Warren, director of the Dothan Houston County Library System, calls this loss in revenue significant.
“The loss of passport processing services here at the library, rather than an investment, this is a withdrawal. This is like a $99,000 withdrawal from our community,” Warren said.
“And when you consider what a public library contributes, when you consider what it generates in terms of return on investment, how it supports early literacy, lifelong learning, community connections, and things like that, the library is in a really unique place to be able to provide those kinds of resources and services. ” Warren said programs like story time, summer reading and STEM activities for tweens and teens were possible because of the revenue generated through passports.
The Board of Trustees approved the reduction in operating hours during a called meeting on Monday, April 27. The new hours for the main library will be Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with extended hours until 8 p.m. on Tuesdays.
The new hours for the Westgate branch will be Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with extended hours until 8 p.m. on Thursdays, and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The revised schedule is informed by a review of circulation activity, computer usage, and door count, and it aligns operating hours with the days and times when each location is most heavily used. The change is also part of a broader plan to gradually reduce the library’s expenditures by reducing operating hours and leaving vacant positions unfilled.
Library staff is evaluating other cost-saving measures to ensure the long-term sustainability of library services. Warren encourages those who support the library and can speak to how the library has helped their lives to share their stories with local elected officials to help them understand the importance of increasing funding for the library. Download the WTVY News4 app to get alerts and stories the moment they are published.
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