City Budget Information
Usage Statistics
County Budget Information

More information in the monthly article, Budgeting for a Better Library

City Budget Information:
Would you like to see the library maintain its open hours (including Sunday afternoons), have more materials to check out, do more programs, continue to have up-to-date technology, and maintain the building and grounds?  If so, you can help the library by speaking to your city council representatives.  We need your help!

What are we asking for from the city?

An average library budget for a town our size (comparison made with towns in Iowa from 5000-7000 in population). 

Unfortunately, the library budget is so far below average that this means a 31% increase.  After years of asking for increases, we are at a point with the new library where it is essential to have average funding to maintain a larger facility and serve more people, as well as to improve our materials selection and programming opportunities. 

How will the funding increase benefit the community?

• Cover higher operating costs with the new facility.  Heating, cooling, cleaning, lighting, parking lot, and supplies are all part of the 31% increase requested.
• Maintain open hours, including Sunday afternoons.
• Increase funding to books, magazines and periodicals.  After years of insufficient funding, it would take 14,337 additional books to bring our collection up to an average number of books (for a city our size).
• Increase funding to audiobooks as well as DVDs.  The amount of additional audiovisual materials needed to bring the number of items to average for a city our size would be 5,967. 
• Offer increased program opportunities for education and entertainment.
• Begin to replace public computers on a five-year cycle.

The library has seen large increases in usage.  These are the increases we have seen since opening the new library in September:

• 97% increase in people coming to the library
• 59% increase in check outs
• 68% increase in computer usage
• 128% increase in website hits
• 433% increase in new library cards

Please call your city representatives to tell them how important the library is to our community and why it is important to you.  Ask that the library budget proposal be funded in full.  Please contact Craig Ankerstjerne (334-4346) or Laura Blaker (334-2470) if you have any questions about the library budget.

Please contact your representatives.  You may contact the two at-large representatives as well as the representative from the ward in which you live.

City Council Representatives:

County Budget Information:

Please see above information for usage numbers.

A decision is made about the amount of money from the county for public libraries, and the amount goes through a formula to get distributed to each of the county libraries.  The libraries are Aurora, Fairbank, Independence, Jesup, Lamont, and Winthrop. 

Independence gets the largest share because of size and amount of usage.  This year Independence received $10 per capita plus $1000 per library.  Independence received $40,220 of our total $219,000 budget.  We requested $11.50 per capita for the '09-'10 fiscal year budget. 

Please ask the supervisors that they fund the total requested, or $11.50 per capita for Buchanan County Libraries.  The county average in Iowa (latest statistics available) is $13.56 per capita. 

Buchanan County Supervisors
Office:  334-3578

Mike Ferreter - mferreter@co.buchanan.ia.us    
Ellen Gaffney - egaffney@co.buchanan.ia.us    
Ralph Kremer - rkremer@co.buchanan.ia.us      

Please contact Craig Ankerstjerne (334-4346) or Laura Blaker (334-2470) if you have any questions about the library budget. 

City Budget Information
Usage Statistics
County Budget Information