July 15, 2008

Cape Girardeau Public Library experiencing low circulation

While the new Cape Girardeau Public Library is being built, the library's temporary location at 301 Broadview St. is seeing less public activity, according to statistics. The library has experienced a decrease in its average circulation rates for November through June compared to corresponding statistics for the same period from November 2006 to June 2007, according to the board of trustees' statistical reports for the Cape Girardeau Public Library...

KIT DOYLE ~ kdoyle@semissourian.com Wendy Lincoln, left, and Paula Fetherstone constructed paper bag memory books Saturday morning, July 12, 2008, durin gan Adult Services Program at the Cape Girardeau Public Library. The new library will have twice the meeting room space as the old one, and much more than the current temporary location. Youth Services and Adult Services currently juggle space to accomodate programs.

While the new Cape Girardeau Public Library is being built, the library's temporary location at 301 Broadview St. is seeing less public activity, according to statistics.

The library has experienced a decrease in its average circulation rates for November through June compared to corresponding statistics for the same period from November 2006 to June 2007, according to the board of trustees' statistical reports for the Cape Girardeau Public Library.

Betty Martin, the Cape Girardeau Public Library's director, said she expected to move to the temporary location to negatively affect circulation rates. She attributed the drop in the circulation to two things: less room for library groups to meet and the longer distance some library patrons have to travel in order to get to the library.

The library circulation rate has been most affected by a lack of meeting room space, Martin said. Rentals of circulation materials for juveniles and adults have decreased by 10 percent and 9 percent, respectively, since the move to the temporary building. Martin said meetings are important to circulation rates because attendees usually check out library materials.

There are two kinds of library group meetings that may have contributed to a drop in circulation at the library: youth and outside group meetings.

Outside group meetings, defined as any group not created by the library, have seen the most dramatic decrease in attendance since the library moved. For November 2006 to June 2007, outside library groups met at the library an average of 27 times a month. For November 2007 to June 2008, these groups met an average of 5.5 times each month.

Alan Journet, a co-facilitator of the SEMO Climate Change Group since it first met in March 2007, said the group no longer uses the library as a meeting place. The group moved to the Osage Community Centre in Cape Girardeau in September 2007, before the library changed locations, because he thought there wouldn't be enough meeting room space at the temporary facility, Journet said. Currently, the meeting room at the temporary location isn't walled off and it is in the play area of the library's children's section.

KIT DOYLE ~ kdoyle@semissourian.com Curtis Sparks helped his daughter Charli Jo Sparks, 4, write her name on the caterpillar that they made Saturday morning, July 12, 2008, during a 'Catch the Reading Bug' Youth Services Program at the Cape Girardeau Public Library.

Carol Goldsmith, a regular library patron, said the Clark Street location is convenient to many patrons because it was close to their homes and could justify a trip out. But with high gas prices, Goldsmith said, people might need a better reason to go to the library.

"You have to tie it into something, like going to Schnucks," she said. "It's too much of a splurge with gas prices being high to just come out here."

The temporary location of the library is about 1.25 miles southwest from the location on Clark Street, Martin said.

The number of youth group meetings also has decreased since the move. According to statistics from November 2006 to June 2007, youth groups met an average of 11 times each month. For the same period from 2007 to 2008, they met an average of 9.25 times each month.

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Sharon Anderson, the youth services coordinator at the Cape Girardeau Public Library, said she attributes the drop in youth group meetings to the lack of space. At the Clark Street location, Anderson said the library could comfortably hold 50 3- to 5-year-olds, while the temporary location can barely fit 30 children.

One problem with the lack of space is the lack of walls, which the Clark Street location had, to help keep children focused, Anderson said. She said the youth groups are distracted by the sights and sounds of other children in the room who aren't participating. They are also distracted when they look out the windows onto the parking lot of the complex where the temporary library is housed.

While looking forward to the new library, Martin said she couldn't be more pleased with the temporary location. She said the lease on the building is cheap and open-ended, which she said will allow the library to stay housed there until the new one is completed.

That is important, Martin said, because the completion of the new library has been delayed by 34 days. The library is now expected to be finished by Feb. 3. Originally, the substantial completion date of the new library was expected to be Dec. 31.

In order to attract more patrons to the new library, new meeting rooms will be built, Martin said. The old library had one meeting room, which could hold 100 patrons. In the new library, the room will double in size and include a dividing wall down the middle. Also, five other meeting rooms will be built: a new conference room for 16 people, a children's program room for 100 and three small-group tutoring rooms, two for four people each and one for eight.

adohogne@semissourian.com

335-6611

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