FY 1984 Annual Report` SCHERTZ PUBLIC LIBRARY
FY 84 has been a year of organization for the Schertz Library,
with a new building and county funds to be spent on furnishings, much
time and energy was spent throughout the year on the physical arrangement
of the new facility. This task was not an easy one, yet much pleasure
was derived by all involved in establishing the mode of operation
in a new enviro�tihent.
The library offers its services to anyone living, working or owning
property in Guadalupe County, with most of the existing patrons living
in Schertz or the surrounding areas of the county, such as Cibolo,
Marion and Northcliff. Library services can also be obtained by out -of-
county residents for an annual user's fee of $10.00 per individual
or $15.00 for a family.
LIBRARY CARDS ISSUED 1978 -1984
1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984
Res. 875 739 435 630 550 574 817
Non -Res. 135 170 148 172 113 198 250
User's Fee N/A N/A N/A 18 16 39 46
Total 1010 900 583 820 679 811 1103
At the present time the library has a total of 4,002 card holders.
'In FY 84 1,103 library cards were issued which was a 36% increase
over FY 83's 811. This increase was expected due to the move to the
new building and gratifying to the librarian because it meant more
people were using the library. However, the circulation of materials_
was down slightly as seen by the following table:
ITEMS CIRCULATED
1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984
4,452 15,504 19,819 24,416 26,325 29,294 29,210
` This slight decrease was disconcerting and puzzling to the librarian
because an increase in cardholders usually indicates an increase in
circulation. Many conclusions could. be drawn from the statistics as
they stand, but none would really be valid without further investigation
of many more factors, therefore the librarian prefers to believe that
more people are using the library but not necessarily to check out
books.
PERSONNEL
. The director of the Schertz Library is a certified librarian with
27 hours in library science (1*5 of which are graduate hours) who holds
a valid Texas County Librarian's Certificate. Approximately 20 volunteers
assist the librarian in the daily operation of the library and in
special projects. These volunteers are dedicated, hard - working and
invaluable. A good estimate indicates that volunteers at the library
put in over 6,000 hours of service last year. If the se.hourswere given
even the value of minimum wage, the amount they donated to the city
in FY 83 would be in excess of $20,000.
CONTINUED EDUCATION
In. order t,o, maintain a County Librarian's certification a librarian
must obtain 20 hours of continuing education every two years. In FY
84, the librarian attended workshops on circulation. and marketing
library services. Throughout the year, personnel from District 10
of the State Library System made consultation visits to the library
in order to keep the librarian abreast of the latest services available
to Schertz Library from the State. Also in Fy 84 both the Texas Library
Association conference and the American Library Association conference
was attended by the librarian..Attendence to these conferences enabled
the librarian to attend lectures and seminars dealing with librarianship
as well as socialize with librarians from all over the country.
SERVICES
The types of services that a library can offer are limited probably
only by the imagination, however the types of services that Schertz
Library does offer is limited by several factors besides imagination,
such as money and staff.
�A copy machine was purchased to handle staff and patron needs.and from
Jan. 83 to Sept. 30, 84, $256 was collected in copier fees (10� per copy).
A new electronic typewriter was also purchased with partial funding from
a generous volunteer, and three cameras for patrons to check out were
obtained free of charge.
SERVICES
Reference service is considered to be very important by the
librarian so emphasis was placed on that service throughout the year.
An inventory was taken of the reference collection and books were
purchased to update and add to the reference section with funds from
the State. Staff meetings were established for the volunteers once a
month and mini - workshops on reference services were incorporated into
the meetings.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Special programs for children and adults were presented
throughout the year such as feature length films, field trips, story
time and a summer reading club. The official dedication of the library
took place in December '83 and then in July .'84 a ceremony was held
for the unveiling of a historical marker honoring the founding of
Schertz.
FUTURE PLANS
Now that the facility is organized and space and area have
been evaluated, the emphasis for FY 85 will be on collection develop-
ment and acquisition of books (which is an ongoing concern). Other
main areas of concentration would be establishing more special programs
for all ages and interests, more extensive training for volunteers,
establishing local and oral history collections and establishing a
Texana Collection.
'\
Despite the limitations the library does offer such services to the
public as special programs for all ages, reference service, camera
loans, film and filmstrip equipment loan, and the traditional library
service, book loans. A meeting room is also available:for the use of
the community.
Books are the main reason for the existence of most libraries
and Schertz Library has continued to grow in its number of volumes
throughout its six years of operation. At the end of FY 84, 13,995
volumes were on the shelves of the Schertz Library with another 1,000
items of circulating material available in the verticle file. Approximately
25 magazines are received monthly by the library and many of them
are kept on file for three to five years. Five newspapers are also
available to library patrons.
AUDIO VISUAL MATERIALS
Audio visual equipment and films and filmstrips are available
to library users and in FY 84 patrons continued to utilize the film
projector, filmstrip projector, and slide projector as well as the
filmstrips, films and cassettes. The library's collection of records
was completely withdrawn in FY 84 due to its poor condition and lack
of funds to purchase new items.
INTERLIBRARY LOAN
Interlibrary loan is a service to library patrons that was utilized
in FY 84. This loan network allows the library to borrow books from
other libraries for patrons. in FY-84 436 transactions took place
which compares to 511 in FY 83. Here again many conclusions could
be drawn from these two figures, but one optimistic one is that with
our steadily growing collections, patrons needed to borrow less from
other libraries.
NEW EQUIPMENT
FY 84 was a year of many changes for library patrons and staff
but most of the changes were considered good ones. Because of considerable
new equipment and new furniture, .for, a time every week brought about
a different layout for the library. This was disconcerting to some
but at the close of FY 84 most furniture was placed in its semi permanent
position.
i