Funding critical to future of Public Library. Group can't afford membership in area consortium. (Fond du Lac Reporter, 4/13/2011)
Excerpt: The future of Fond du Lac's Public Library and its satellite locations lies in funding, says Library Director Ken Hall.
Among some major announcements made Wednesday at the Friends of the Library annual meeting is the decision Hall made to leave the Winnefox Library System's computer consortium in 2012 because it has become cost prohibitive. Fees amount to more than $100,000 a year, he said.
"We will remain a member of the Winnefox system, just not the consortium. We simply can't afford it," he said.
He said comparable libraries, like Mead Public Library in Sheboygan, pay about $10,000 a year as members of a different state library system — Eastern Shores. The difference in cost, he noted, is in the way the two library systems use funding.
"We are in negotiations with Eastern Shores, but it will come down to cost. We will need to pay more than if we are a member of the system. If we can't afford it, we will act as a stand-alone system," he said.
Link to City of Sheboygan 2011 budget. (Mead Public Library found on pages 39-43.
Related articles:
The Fond du Lac Public Library and a slightly misleading headline. (12/16/2010)
Fond du Lac County packing its library bags? (12/14/2010)
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