Funny how a simple statement that usage has increased 78% over 2011 statistics, give the impression of giving you some information, when in fact it gives you nothing.

What was the usage in people or hours per week for the period June 2011 to year end. And what was the usage in people or hours per week in 2012. This would give you a good comparison.

A 78% increase could be minimal if the overall usage time is low.

If one person used it and then two people used it, we would have a 100% increase. Get my drift?

Yup. Yet another example of how to use percentages to make yourself look better (or worse).

Speaking of the library, what are the usage statistics in general? Do more people go to the library or less these days? I’d be willing to bet that it’s less.

It may not be politically correct to ask, but do we need such a big building filled with books, most of which probably haven’t been checked out in years?

Most libraries get well used, and the high-speed internet addition to any of them will be an advantage to anyone who wants to use it.

The whole idea of a public library is to give everyone equal access to literary materials many could not afford to see otherwise, whether they’re reading for entertainment or for research.

Books are far from being obsolete yet, and not everything in them is available on the Internet yet, either. Many people do not ‘check out’ library books, but that doesn’t mean they’re not still read in the library itself.

If we’re looking to pinch nickles in a quest for (the inanity) of a ‘balanced budget’ (under the current financial set-up), best we look at the REAL issues with that, not at the library. Which continues to fill an important function.

That’s great socredible, but I’d love to see some real stats/numbers to back up your claims.

I wonder how long it will be before our library will need a dog to sniff out the bedbugs hiding in the spines of returned books, saw a beagle employed at one branch in the lower mainland:( Don’t have that problem with my e-reader.

Skylab … Are they studying the sky? What is a lab? Is it a lab?

Let’s just say that they increased the number of computer stations. Not sure by how many. It does not say.

“The stylized infrastructure has 23 high-speed Internet computer stations compared to the old computers which ran on slow speed, a wireless bar and a 360 degree view of the city”

So faster speed ….. how much faster? Therefore how mnay more terabytes of date per month over the previous situation?

I assume they charge for this. So how much more did they collect due to this 78% increase? 78%?

Does the library have free wireless internet access or can one purchase wireless internet access for those with devices which can hook up to such services?

I was looking for the Board minutes and annual reports. Could not find them on the Library site. Nor could I find the Board minutes. The City website has the following page for the library.
http://princegeorge.ca/cityhall/committees/library/Pages/Default.aspx

It has the minutes up to November of 2012. The latest and only annual report on that page is for 2004.

It is called transparency in government …. ;-)

A sad state of affairs. DO any of the Board members care enough to take up such an issue and pretend they are a caring member of this community who would like to see what is happening with their tax dollars and whether they are being used effectively and efficiently? I am sure that is too much to ask about a board member who is appointed by an ineffective City Council who also has Councillors who do not peruse the City Web site to notice such gaps in reporting out or at least lack of clear repositories of information. Odd that a library, whose function is to catalogue data, has such poor cataloguing of its own data.

http://princegeorge.ca/cityhall/committees/library/Pages/Default.aspx

Is it any wonder that City Administration cannot locate invoices in a few minutes? ;-)

“If we’re looking to pinch nickles in a quest for (the inanity) of a ‘balanced budget’ (under the current financial set-up), best we look at the REAL issues with that, not at the library. Which continues to fill an important function.”

But that would mean looking at the largest services first ….. fire services and police. And those appear to be untouchables for some unknown reason.

Also, many of the pdf documents on the City website, in this case the 2004 annual report, have the print funtion and cut and paste function disabled. That means that one of the more modern methods of discourse is effectively shut down. No wonder people and documents are so often misquoted.

The computer related budget also seems to be sacrosanct, makes a person wonder if the money is being spent wisely.

Go to the library and count the people that use it if you want statistics, Johnny. I don’t live in PG, but where I do live the local library gets lots of use from the public. It’s been expanded at least six times since I was a kid and first went there to borrow a book. And that wouldn’t have happened if there was no demand for the services it offers. I’ve never yet been in it when it didn’t have lots of customers, and the internet terminals it has now seem to get lots of use, too.

Were library computers not in the budget coming up? Perhaps within the 15 min of allotted time for all the public of Prince George – maybe someone can ask the mayor and council what will happen to that money now?….

Maybe that was for the other computers at the library. Maybe it was even for the computers mentioned in the article. The reference to high speed may just be the service connection. In fact, Telus may be the service provider.

They have

High Speed = 1.5 to 6.0 Mbps Download speed;
High Speed Turbo = 10.0 to 15.0 Mbps;
High Speed Turbo 25 = 21.0 to 25.0 Mbps

Sort of like Starbucks sizing; there is no slow speed. ;-)

I understand that some libraries are going to start allowing books to be **taken out** electronically for four weeks, after which it will be taken off your computer.

This will reduce significantly the number of people who go to the library, and therefore they should be in line for a staffing and funding cut. I expect what they will do is report an electronic check out the same as a visit, and request the same or more funding.

I wonder how they’ll work that with the way the copyright laws are set up?

If the library is reproducing the book electronically to allow someone a “take out” that way, that’s going to cut into book sales and any royalties payable to the author, and would infringe on the copyright unless they’ve got the necessary permission, and they (usually)have to pay for that privilege.

So what’s ‘saved’ in one area may end up costing just as much, or more, in another.

Sme libraries? …

You have not been to the library lately, obviously ….

Click on here and “go to the virtual library” of the 21st century

http://www.lib.pg.bc.ca/ebooks

I have been thinking that Mayor Moffat may have been ahead of his time when he referred to a library as no more than a warehouse for books.

In fact, it might be too late to get a starbucks or second cup into the library.

Instead, go to a Starbucks or your coffee house of choice, log onto their wifi with your tablet or smartphone, go through the libray database and read newspapers, magazines, books, listen to music, etc.

“So what’s ‘saved’ in one area may end up costing just as much, or more, in another.”

The authors still produce and get pay for their production. The music industry has been working this way for some time. Nothing new.

The publishers still do the desptop publishing to assemble the final product. They may even send some to be printed. Sow we still get, in some cases, hardcover, softcover for considerably less, and possibly electronic for less than that.

So, who is getting less business?

– not the authors, they actually may get more
– not the publishers, they still do almost the same work if not more
– the printers some of whom may have to speciailize in “coffee table” books
– the truckers who will have less heavy paper to transport
– the bookstores, who may have to downsize or provide new services for “readers”.
– the paper producers, who may have to find some other use for wood fibre
– the loggers
– etc. etc.

I wasn’t thinking so much of ‘new’ literature, gus, which I’m aware is like you say. Rather of the library itself electronically reproducing older texts for distribution like Palopu mentioned.

They can certainly do that with any books where the copyrights have expired, but a lot of other books might not be able to be reproduced that way without running the risk of violating the copyright. Some of which seem to be guarded quite jealously.

I’m aware of one copyright holder to a whole series of books once quite widely read who, (so far), for his own reasons, refuses to allow those books to be reproduced electronically, and so they’re not available for distribution that way. Doubtless there are other texts in a similar position with their copyright holders.

“Go to the library and count the people that use it if you want statistics, Johnny.”

So you have nothing in other words. As gus found out, library statistics are very hard to find. That doesn’t give me a feeling that attendance numbers are on the way up.

Thankfully, we have computers with internet access set up there. It probably accounts for a high volume of the foot traffic.

So if I am to believe some of our esteemed posters on here… We should get rid of the airport, get rid of the library, get rid of the kin centers, get rid of the police station, get rid of the university… and then build a PAC right?
*eye roll*

Who said we should build a PAC? As for the library, why souldn’t we examine the way it’s run and possibly downsize it? Society has changed since the 70’s.

not you JB – I am lumping several people together… but one of our finest “researchers” has been in support of a PAC for years ;)

I think the library gets more use than any other city public facility.