VILLAGE OF BROWN DEER

PUBLIC LIBRARY

 

 

5600 W. BRADLEY ROAD

BROWN DEER ,  WISCONSIN   53223

(414) 357-0106

 

 

 

 

Hours

 

Monday & Wednesday … 10:00 A.M. – 8:30 P.M.

Tuesday & Thursday … 1:00 P.M. – 8:30 P.M.

Friday … 10:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M.

Saturday … 10:00 A.M. – 2:00 P.M.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Village Manager Russell Van Gompel

Brown Deer Board of Trustees

 Greetings:

                 The Brown Deer Public Library Board and Library Staff are pleased to share with you the 2005 Annual Report of the Brown Deer Public Library.  This document describes the accomplishments and activities of the library during 2005.

                The mission of the Brown Deer Public Library is to provide educational, informational, recreational and cultural materials and services to:

             1.        those who live or work in the Village of Brown Deer

 2.        other Milwaukee County Library System patrons

             To fulfill our mission, the continuing financial support of the Village of Brown Deer is essential.   By purchasing library materials (including books, magazines, newspapers, audiocassettes, videos, dvds, compact discs, audiobooks on compact disc, and cd roms) for people to share, library customers have access to both information and leisure reading at a minimal cost.  Currently, the Brown Deer Public Library has the lowest cost per circulation of library materials among all public libraries in the Milwaukee County Federated Library System. Even though we are quite frugal the impact of the loss of funds from the City of Milwaukee and the Milwaukee County Federated Library System which occurred due to a radical change in the method and amounts of reciprocal borrowing compensation in 2005 will be felt in 2006.  Much public debate occurred in 2005, including a public hearing on withdrawing from the MCFLS, and very likely the debate on funding for non-resident usage will doubtless continue.  We will always stand ready to assist those who come through our doors in an equal and courteous manner whether they come to find answers to their questions from our collection or the Internet, who come to attend a meeting or who just want to curl up with a good book. However, we do need to remain open to the public to do this.

The Library Board and Library Staff also wishes to thank the Friends of the Brown Deer Public Library, the Junior Woman’s Club of Brown Deer, the Woman’s Club of Brown Deer and other community groups and individuals for their support and continued interest during this time of need more than ever.

 Much gratitude is well-deserved for the Library Staff and to all in the Village of Brown Deer , especially the Library Board, the Village Board of Trustees, other Village Departments, and all others who have contributed to the success of this Library.

 In 1978, when the current building was constructed and opened to the public the citizens of Brown Deer gave themselves a wonderful gift which keeps on giving through all the years to all the people. We hope and trust this will be the case for many more years.

 

                                                                                                                Sincerely,

 

                                                                                                                Arnold Gutkowski

                                                                                                                Library Director

 

 

 

BROWN DEER PUBLIC LIBRARY

ORGANIZATIONAL CHART

2005 Village Board

 

Margaret Jaberg, Village President

Jeffrey Baker

Terry Boschert

Carl Krueger

Ronald Kundinger

Timothy Schilz

Gary Springman

Russ Van Gompel, Village Manager

 

 

2005 Library Board

 

Gerald Balistreri , President

Jeffrey Baker

Ann Griffin

Wendy Jabas

Anne Lutz

 

 

2005 Library Staff

 

Arnold Gutkowski, Library Director

Mary Dunn, Adult Services Librarian

Mary Bird, Reference & Adult Services*

Vickie Grabow, Reference & Youth Services*

Kelley Hinton, Reference & Adult Services*

Terry Wilson, Youth Services Librarian*

Sandra Haase, Library Technical Assistant

Mary Koudelka, Library Assistant

Kathleen Field, Library Assistant*

Lynn Krueger, Library Assistant*

Nicole Garrett, Library Assistant*

Betty Michels, Library Assistant*

Ann Schmirler, Library Assistant*

Stephanie Eiffler, Page*

Stephen Eiffler, Page*

Kathleen Griffin, Page*

Georgia Miler, Page*

Jay Vang, Page*

 

 

*Part-time

 

 

Highlights in 2005

 

NEW STAFF

            Several new staff were hired in 2005. Mary Bird is a new part-time Librarian.  Jay Vang and Stephan Eiffler are new part-time Library Pages. All positions replaced other vacated positions.

 VISITATION AND INTERNET USAGE STATISTICS

            The Library had many visitors in 2005—150,629 visits during 2005.  This averages to 12,552 per month, 2,897 per week, and on a business day the Library averages 519 visits, usually from 450-700 per day throughout the year.

            The Library again had high numbers for Internet usage—14,277 people used the 7 Internet terminals at the Library in 2005. There is an average of 49 usages every day.

 CIRCULATION STATISTICS

            In 2005 the Library circulated 293,181 items.  This high total averages to 24,432 per month, 5,638 per week, and 1,011 per business day. Again, this indicates that many, many people use the Library vigorously for their information needs. The Library staff has been kept very busy either in the circulation of items or in assisting patrons with their information questions. The Circulation staff copes with all issues relating to the circulation of items, and has provided their usual higher level of patron service this past year which was very busy.  Reference staff has coped with this overall business increase very well, fielding the many thousands of questions presented by patrons throughout the year. Generally an average range of  600-1,000 items are returned to the Library every day. This means that a very large amount of items need to be placed back on the collection’s shelves in correct order every day to allow the public and Librarian’s efficient and effective access to the items. The Library pages are responsible for the primary shelving of the collection, without their diligence the collection would be unusable by library patrons, their efforts are much appreciated. Again, to mention one more statistic since the average circulation period for items is three weeks, there are 15-20,000 items out in circulation at any one time, yet another indication of the heavy usage of this Library.

 COLLECTION COMPOSITION & SIZE

            The change in the collection development chart indicates a comparable figure for this past year compared with the previous year (76,299 in 2005 compared to 76,922 in 2004). Beginning with 2001 the figure reflects the number of items not just the number of books in the Library’s collection. It is important to note that this is a netted figure balancing collection deletions with collection additions. Even though thousands of new items were added this past year, many worn, outdated, underused items were withdrawn. This process is referred to in professional librarianship as “weeding”. While some items were replaced there is a general capacity to the size of collection that this building will accommodate which prohibits adding too many items to the collection without increasing the size of the building. Since the absolute limit to the amount of items in the current building size is 80,000-85,000 items, and assuming 15-20,000 are out at any one time, at this point in time we will continue to carefully balance the additions against building capacity. This year 11,956 “E-Books” or electronic books were made available, this figure is not counted in the size of the Library’s collection. The E-books can be viewed in the Library or remotely at home using a personal computer. E-books are available to all MCFLS patrons. Items in digital format are not composed of paper & ink as traditional books are, just as audiobooks are recorded spoken books on CD or Cassette tape, but the power of the book comes forward in any medium. “Regular” paper books are now and will be, for some time to come, a staple of any public library’s collection.

RECIPROCAL BORROWING COMPENSATION AMOUNTS

           Much of 2005 was taken up with meetings and hearings devoted to the effect less reciprocal borrowing compensation amounts owing to a new annual agreement with the City of Milwaukee and an equity grant from the MCFLS would have on the Brown Deer Public Library. Basically, since less amounts were received from the City of Milwaukee and the Milwaukee County Federated Library System the Village of Brown Deer did increase its amount of contribution to the Library budget but were limited by State Law with regard to amount of overall budgetary increases which can be allowed and did not fully make up the losses. Therefore, planning was done to decrease library services. Much study was devoted to decreasing the public hours, the amount of hours and where the cuts occurred were discussed in detail by all parties associated with the Brown Deer Public Library. Cuts also had to occur in the item purchasing lines. In all cases efforts were made to cushion the impacts that service cuts would have on the library patron, but in the end a cut literally entails pain and this continues to be felt by everyone connected with the Library. A brief word concerning the Library Staff, I want to personally thank all Library Staff members for bearing up under these trying circumstances, these are wonderful hard-working Village employees who deserve every consideration. More comments on this are included at the end of the section on the Milwaukee County Federated Library System in this report.

Collection Size

 As of December 2005

                                                        68,161                     Books

                                  3,176                     Videocassettes

                                  2,098                     Audiocassettes (Audiobooks on cassette)

                                  1,958                     Compact Discs                    

                                                             165                     Periodical Titles (5,739 issues)

             454                     DVD’s

        121                   CD-ROM’s

        331                   Audiobooks on CD

                                                          11,956                           E-books (electronic books)

     

2005 Circulation Statistics

               

                                January                                                                  22,870

                                February                                                                23,343

                                March                                                                    25,785

                                April                                                                       23,480

                                May                                                                        22,566

                                June                                                                        28,923

                                July                                                                         25,691

                                August                                                                  25,415

                                September                                                             23,187

                                October                                                                  23,358

                                November                                                              21,039

                                December                                                              20,099

                                 Total                                                                    277,493     

 

(Actual circulation total is 293,181 which includes 10,100 additional remote renewal circulations not classifiable by month, and additional circulation not correctly added due to failures of MCFLS Computer system to accurately count statistics in November)

 

Programs at the Brown Deer Public Library

 Summer Reading Program

 Some highlights of the 2005 Dragons, Dreams & Daring Deeds Summer Reading Program;

425 children registered for the program.

 Several other programs were held during the Summer, all sponsored by the Friends of the Brown Deer Library: “Pinwheel the Clown with Janice DeSpears”, “Art Beaudry—Storyteller”, “Magic Morgan”, “Milwaukee County Zoo—Care for Critters”. Friday Morning “Medieval Madness” had 6 programs dealing with medieval subjects with a craft..  201 attended the Summer Reading Programs.

 For Children

 Weekly Story Hours, morning and afternoon, for pre-school children were held regularly throughout the year, underneath our Story Tree in the Community Room.   There were also Family storytimes (with parents) held in the library meeting room. 122 total programs were held with an attendance of 1,974.

 As in the past, funding for the Summer Reading Program and other special programs was provided by the Friends of the Brown Deer Library.

 For Adults

 Many community groups used the Community Room on a regular basis, among them the Friends of the Brown Deer Library (regular meetings, Annual Spring Flower sale, Annual Goods and Services Auction), Junior Women’s Club of Brown Deer, Brown Deer Junior Baseball, Better Brown Deer Committee, Brown Deer Foundation, Brown Deer Youth Football, Brown Deer Education Association, several Condominium associations (Chateau Court, Country Villa, Cherrywood, Riverside, Meadowside) Alzheimer’s Support Group, Foster Parents Assn.,  a class from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Forums for Local Village elections,  Forum for Local School Board elections,  Town Hall meetings from the local State Senator and U.S. Congressman,  the Library Council of Southeastern Wisconsin, the Technical Advisory Committee of the Milwaukee County Federated Library System, the Intergovernmental Cooperation Council of Milwaukee County,  the North Shore Fire Department, “Rainbow Soup” (Youth Art Display from Dean and Algonquin and Middle School and High Schools), workshops for Brown Deer School District. The Community Room is also a poling place for local elections.  Several Village Departments and Village Committees also utilized the Community Room for meetings and hearings during 2005, including the Brown Deer Historical Society. The Brown Deer Public Library Book Club also began in 2005 and meets monthly.

 Library programming and other local governmental and local non-profit groups are given priority in booking the Community Room.

 

 Community Support

Friends of the Brown Deer Library

 The Friends group was formed in 1977, and supports the Brown Deer Library both financially and in the giving of their time.  Over $52,000 in donations have been received from 1977 through 2005 for library materials and furnishings.  The group has also underwritten the costs for the Summer Reading Program each year.  Members of the Friends have also supplied assistance for other library programs.  Fundraisers included a Spring Plant Sale, and a Fall Goods and Services Auction.  The Auction was most successful, raising over $2,700 for the Library. Significant items purchased through Friends’ donations include:

 

 

Friends meetings are held the second Thursday of the months of January, March, May, July, September, and November at 7:00 P.M. in the Library meeting room.

 

Volunteers

 

Many thanks to Ruth Tacke for her much appreciated help every week in 2005. Several other shorter-term volunteers also assisted.  We are always seeking out fine volunteers who assist us with various library tasks including “shelf-reading” that is, the rechecking of the shelving order to ensure the proper location of items and processing various items. Thanks so very much!

 

Donations

 

In addition to financial support from the Village of Brown Deer , the library does receive funds from community groups and individuals to purchase library materials and furnishings or to provide services.  This enables the library to select items or provide services that would not be possible within the limited budget.  In 2005, the following donations were received:

 

                                 Friends of the Brown Deer Library                                       $3,700

                                Brown Deer Junior Woman’s Club                                      $1,000

                                Brown Deer Woman’s Club                                                     $300

                                Personal Donations                                                                   $800

                                Total                                                                                       $5,800

 The library also welcomes donations of used books in good condition, either to be added to the collection, or sold.

  Milwaukee County Federated Library System

(MCFLS)

 The Brown Deer Public Library is a member of the Milwaukee County Federated Library System in order to allow Brown Deer residents to have access to materials owned by every public library in Milwaukee County .  What is not owned by one’s local library can be reserved with printed proof of residency in Milwaukee County . 

 The Library System is supported by State funding through the Department of Public Instruction.  A large portion of the cost of the computerized checkout system is paid for with the system funds, thereby lessening the cost for libraries of local municipalities.  Sharing resources is one of the main purposes of a library system:  The Reciprocal Borrowing Contract between member libraries makes this possible.

 In 1990 a consultant was hired and a Task Force formed to investigate changes in governance.  The Milwaukee County Federated Library System voted to hire a separate administrator for the System.  Bill Wilson began his position as the first separate Director in August, 1991.  In 1991, the Milwaukee County Board funded a new computer system for the Milwaukee County Federated Library System.  The existing computer system was started in the early 1970’s, making many of the system components nearly 19 years old.  In 1992, the Board appropriated an additional amount to bring the total appropriation to $3.4 million. Bill Wilson resigned in October, 1993. Michael Snyder was selected as the new Director of the System.

 In 1993, the computer contract was awarded to Innovative Interfaces, Inc.  The computer system includes circulation, Online Public Access Catalog, acquisitions, and serials modules.  The Innovative computer system was installed in June, 1995.  Since that time, there have been several upgrades. In 1997 Director Michael Snyder resigned as Director.  Doris Nix , the Assistant Director, was chosen to fill the position of Director of MCFLS, she retired in 2003 and Jim Gingery was appointed  Director.

 The phrase “Reciprocal Borrowing Compensation” generally pertains to funds provided by library members of the MCFLS to each other to compensate for use by residents of one community of a different library other than the one supported by the municipality they reside in. Thus, for purposes of this view a Milwaukee resident is a non-resident user of the Brown Deer Public Library and vice-versa. There is a formula involving the annual amount of circulation and annual local operational funding used to determine the amount of compensation to be provided by one community to another annually for this usage, local funds are used for this purpose not State System Funds, until 2003-2004 when State System Funds will be used to supplement local compensation in accord with the current 4 year contract signed. Prior to 2000 there was an assumption on the part of the MCFLS that the Library System had the authority to enforce payment from one member to another. 

During 2000 much time and effort was put forth in formulating a new Reciprocal Borrowing Membership Agreement, the task was complicated by the revelation from the State of Wisconsin/Department of Public Instruction/Division of Libraries, Technology and Community Learning that a Federated Library System cannot exert authority in order to achieve compliance with the provisions of the Reciprocal Borrowing Membership Agreement. Therefore, an entirely new agreement had to be devised, without any of the language from previous agreements. This was completed during 2000 with great patience and effort from all concerned. The new 4 year agreement has been signed by all 15 members (including Brown Deer) of MCFLS by the end of 2001.  In 2004 the Brown Deer Public Library received 45% of its entire operating revenue from reciprocal borrowing compensation provided largely by the City of Milwaukee for their residents’ usage of this Library, the highest amount on a per capita basis of any community in Milwaukee County .  Serious cuts in the amount of compensation provided in this area from both the Milwaukee Public Library and the MCFLS resulted in the Brown Deer Library Board not signing the proposed agreement for 2005-2007 by the end of 2004. The Intergovernmental Cooperation Council, which consists of elected representatives of the municipalities in Milwaukee County , will continue to examine the governance/funding structure of MCFLS during the next year in order to arrive at a more comprehensive governance/compensation solution. The end of 2004 saw the continuation of very uncertain financial issues within Milwaukee County and the State of Wisconsin .  After many meetings with all parties concerned and a public hearing in Brown Deer concerning membership in the MCFLS, even though there was a significant loss of funding, at the very end of December 2005 the Brown Deer Public Library Board reluctantly signed the proposed agreement with the City of Milwaukee and to receive an equity grant from the MCFLS Board from 2005-2007 which had much less reciprocal borrowing compensation than previously received. 

In 2006, as a result of losses in revenue from the City of Milwaukee and MCFLS and the partial fulfillment of these financial losses from the Village of Brown Deer , cuts in public hours and services were inevitable.  Much study was devoted to trimming the public hours, hourly circulation rates, staff scheduling, and other workflow patterns were all taken into account. New public hours were begun as of January 2, 2006 with a loss of  9 public hours weekly, staff has lost hours in some cases 40% annually, the book and other item budgets have been deeply cut (nearly 50% over 2005 and the first half of 2006) in order to continue membership in the MCFLS and also have a stable set of operating hours. The reciprocal borrowing compensation agreement with the City of Milwaukee will likely have Milwaukee repeating the same overall amount for reciprocal borrowing compensation each of the three years in the contract, however, due to less public hours, we are circulating less materials to Milwaukee residents as well as Brown Deer residents, less circulation to Milwaukee residents has an impact on how much of the overall reciprocal compensation “pot” we receive. We will be receiving less in 2007 due to this change, however, the change may be offset somewhat by a provision in the equity grant with the Milwaukee County Federated Library System which has them increasing their amount of reciprocal borrowing compensation if additional State funds are received, 75% of any additional increase is to be committed to reciprocal borrowing compensation. While several organizations and individuals have stepped forward and contributed hundreds and thousands of dollars and we thank all our patrons very much for this, most of which will be going to offset losses in the book and other item purchase lines, there still remains a very difficult situation with regard to the loss of public and staff hours which have caused a decline in circulation amounts, which leads to less overall reciprocal borrowing compensation.  While circulation levels appear to have stabilized at a lower level thus far in 2006, in order to prevent a downward spiral from beginning it is critical that we continue to remain open to the public as many hours as possible, to compensate our staff adequately, and to maintain the levels of item purchases within the limits of our budget.