Library seeks city representative, may change hours
The Rhinelander District Library is looking for a city representative to on its Board of Trustees following the resignation of Deb Blackstone who was recently serving on the board.
“State law requires that we have three representatives from the city: one from city government and two others appointed by the mayor,” Library Director Ed Hughes said. “The mayor has generally accepted the name suggested by the board for replacement.”
Trustees serve for three year terms and this position would begin in January.
“The official appointment may not occur until February or March,” Hughes said. “So it could be a few months shy of three years.”
Hughes said anyone interested in the position should view the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction manual called “Trustee Essentials.” The manual is available at pld.dpi.wi.gov/pld_handbook.
“It will give people a good idea about what trustees do,” Hughes said.
Those interested should contact Hughes at 715-365-1082.
Change in hours
Hughes said the library board has received numerous suggestions the facility stay open later to allow people to use the library after work.
The library is currently operating on summer hours where the building closes Tuesday at 6 p.m instead of 8 and is only open until 1 p.m. on Saturdays instead of 3 p.m. This is due to recent budget cuts.
“The board has asked me to discuss possible options with the staff,” Hughes said. “I gave the topic to the staff to think about. They may come up with a solution but right now we plan on sticking to our summer hours the whole year.”
Hughes said the board and staff did discuss the hours of operation shortly after they found out their budget would be cut.
“We did discuss this shortly after we found out that we would not get the increase in our budget that we had hoped for,” he said. “We did not come up with anything that would address the problem of a staff shortage except to reduce hours.”
Longer check out times
The board approved lengthening check out times for new books. The current check out time for new books is seven days but will be bumped up to 14 days.
“Over the years we have had many requests for a longer loan period for new books,” Hughes said.
While the longer check out times are good for readers, it may mean the library will have to have extra copies on hand.
“We anticipate that we might have to buy a few more second copies for some best sellers, but we really do not know for sure,” Hughes said. “Somebody mentioned that some library users have been keeping out a new best seller past the seven-day loan period and just paying the fine. If that is true, perhaps we will not have to buy additional second copies.”
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