Committee on the Future of Libraries in Hennepin County

1
Committee on the Future of Libraries in Hennepin
County

• Background Information and Services
• December 11, 2006

2
Agenda

• Governance, structure, staffing
• Size and service points
• Hours
• Usage and circulation
• Collection
• Services

3
Conclusions

• Significant similarities
• Mission
• Service and programming strategies
• Differences
• Complementary
• Reflect national city/county patterns
• Funding levels

4
Governance, Structure, Staffing

• Common model
• City or county department
• Governing board appointed by elected officials
• No independent taxing authority
• HCL advisory board
• MPL independent entity elected board

5
Governance, Structure, Staffing

• Staffing
• HCL
• 65 unionized
• County negotiates Ks
• MPL
• 96 unionized
• Library negotiates Ks
• Foundation/Friends

6
Size and Service Points

• Service points
• HCL 5 resources libraries 21 branches
• MPL Central Library and 14/11? branches
• Branches per 100,000 residents
• HCL above average
• MPL above or average, depending
• MPL Central Library
• Right sized for metro area
• Large for Minneapolis

7
Hours of Service

• MPL significantly below HCL and national averages
• Average weekly hours of service
• Hours per library
• Weekly hours per 10,000 residents

8
Usage and Circulation

• Circulation per capita
• HCL much higher than national averages
• MPL at national averages
• Cardholders, registered borrowers per capita
• MPL more cardholders than HCL
• MPL significantly more registered borrowers
• Both reflect city/county national patterns

9
Collection

• Size
• Nature
• Unique titles
• Historic collection
• Depository collections
• Budget
• HCL spends significantly more than MPL
• HCL above average MPL below average

10
Services

• Where services are delivered
• In the library
• In the community
• On-line
• Nature of services
• Differences
• Community needs
• Funding levels