The Hillside Public Library Board is proposing a budget for the Lakeville Road facility with a year-to-year increase of less than 2 percent for the second consecutive year.
The board of trustees for the library, which is part of the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park School District, are proposing a 2011-12 budget of $2,834,925, representing a 1.98 percent rise over this year’s budget of $2,779,885.
“That’s been our goal for many years,” said library Trustee Kathleen Seyfried. “We’ve been below two or three percent for the past several years.”
The library budget grew by 7 percent in 2009 when it was moved into the new building on Lakeville Road, according to Seyfried.
The move marked the beginning of a marked transformation for the Hillside Library, which went from occupying 7,000 square feet in the Manor Oaks School to 27,000 square fee of space.
Maintenance costs are projected to double year-to-year from $5,000 to $10,000. Projects include installing surge protector for the entire building, a new HVAC contract and changing out the lights in children’s area of the library.
“That’s why we’re increasing that particular line,” said Seyfried, who is one of five trustees who serve on the library board.
The library also intends to purchase additional laptops with a $3,000 increase in equipment – from $12,000 to $15,000 year-to-year.
The library currently has 12 desktop computers for adults and six for children, and sees demand growing.
The library reported that 22,940 library visitors used computers last year, up 10 percent from the previous year.
Through the Nassau-e service, the library has downloadable books. It also offers the Esearch information search function. Users can also access data from through eMedia on the library’s system. And Seyfried said the number of e-books that people download to Kindle and similar devices grew by 10 percent in 2010 over the prior year.
“The laptops are something special this year,” Seyfried said. She said she wasn’t sure how many units the library is acquiring.
Costs in computer operations are projected to rise $3,000 to $56,000 to enable use of credit and debit cards at the facility and other software upgrades to assist patrons.
The library’s participation in the Nassau County Library System enables it to make more features accessible over time.
“The technology and use of the Nassau library system gets us discounts on our online system,” Seyfried said.
On the traditional side, the library saw a 10 percent rise among traditional books in circulation with 112,857 taken out last year.
While holding the line on costs, the library has increased the number and variety of programs it maintains for adults and children in the area.
Last year the library conducted 884 programs, a 15 percent increase over the previous year’s 674 programs. It saw a correspondingly large increase in attendance from 17, 543 in 2009 to 20,457 in 2010. And Seyfried said she’s expecting increase next year
“The programs are in great demand from our patrons,” said Seyfried, who said the yoga classes are among the most popular classes and consistently sell out.
English as a second language also is popular, increasing from 45 sessions, to 78 sessions in 2010, with 478 enrolling in 2010 from 135 during the previous year.
