Mount Vernon
Gambier
Danville
John Chidester, library director, said one of the major issues for the library is the lack of funding that is not coming in due to the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“About half of our funding comes from the Public Library Fund, which is in the state general revenues,” Chidester said.
The other half of the library’s funding comes from two property levies. With the tax deadline pushed back until July 15, Chidester said they may make up some revenue then, but it’s hard to predict how much.
“People may have trouble paying their property taxes,” Chidester said. “There’s a lot of unknowns.”
Because of the budget cuts and the lack of revenue coming in, the library had to make some cuts to the budget. They have stopped purchasing unnecessary items and spending on unnecessary employee expenses. such as travel.
“Staff is about 70 percent of our operating expenses,” he said. “We had to lay off almost half, 28 out of 64, of our staff.”
This caused a lack of staff needed to run all four locations in Knox County. The library had to figure out a way to operate the different locations and still provide services to their patrons.
The Gambier branch has been closed. Right now, those libraries that are open are doing curbside pick-up services, with the buildings closed to the public.
“Gambier shares staff with Danville,” he said about why they closed that branch off from curbside pick up. “It also has the lowest population, especially when the college students are gone. It also had the lowest circulation rate per year as well.”
While they would like to call the staff back in, they aren’t sure when that will happen. A reopening date for the library has not been set.
“We would like to open it back up,” Chidester said, adding that they are watching other public libraries to see how they are planning to reopen.
In the meantime, they are still trying to figure out how to open back up but Chidester said it will include things like social distancing and masks until it’s safe not to have to follow these guidelines. This would also include limiting occupancy to at least half of the fire code. The curbside pick up for books and other resources are available at their Mount Vernon, Fredericktown and Danville locations.
Chidester also explained that the library is expanding the Mount Vernon location service to provide walk-up services at the front of the building. One window will provide book pick-up and drop-off services while the other window will provide other services such as printing and reference material. Chidester said the public will be able to send an email of what they wish to be printed and will be able to pay and pick up the items at the windows. These services, according to Chidester, will hopefully start around the beginning of June.
The library is still encouraging its patrons to access online materials through apps like Libby and Hoopla.
“We’re eager to get back to normal but doing so without endangering the lives of our patrons and employees,” he said.
