Boyd library, branches offer more than books

ASHLAND — This is not your father’s Boyd County Public Library, but Librarian Debbie Cosper insists the library is doing what it has always done — it’s just doing it differently.

During the 2007-08 fiscal year, Boyd County library patrons checked out 193,853 books, but they also checked out 172,027 CDs, tapes and DVDs during the same period. That means that recorded books and movies accounted for 46.46 percent of all items checked out from the library that year.

Among the other pubic libraries in the 14 counties in Boyd’s region, only Magoffin County had a higher percentage than Boyd of tapes and movies checked out with just over half — 51.35 percent — of the checked out materials being recorded books or movies, Floyd County was nearly equal to Boyd with record books and movies accounting for 46.1 percent of its total circulation. At most other area libraries, however, recorded books and movies account for only a small percentage of the total collection.

Checking out a CD or cassette tape is not the only way to get a recorded book from the Boyd County Pubic Library. Library patrons can download one of more than 4,300 e-books that can be accessed from its Web site: www.thebookplace.org.

Many people are surprised at how much the library is used, Cosper said. At any given time, about 30 percent of the library’s total collection of books, recorded books and movies is in circulation, she said.

According to statistics compiled by Regional Librarian Jimmie Epling, 55.46 percent of Boyd County’ total population of 48,481 have library cards. The 26,889 county residents with library cards average checking out almost seven books, movies or recorded books each year. That represents the highest per capita circulation in the 14 counties in Region 8.

“I’m not really that concerned about how you get your information,” Cosper said. “I don’t really care whether you read a book or listen to it. We just want to be able to meet whatever your need is. That means we have to be flexible and willing to change.”

While teenagers used to gather at the library in the evenings during the school year to work on term papers and to study together, that does not happen so often now, Cosper said. But if they have a question, they can go to ask.why.ky and get an answer. Boyd County librarians help man a statewide network and are assigned shifts when they answer calls from throughout the state.

“That’s a service we started providing in October and already we have gotten more than 280 calls,” Cosper said. “That’s just something else we do for no extra cost.”

The library is constantly trying new programs designed to attract more patrons. They range from children’s reading hours, teen groups, a new summer adult reading program, afternoon movies and even movies under the stars.

“I’m willing to try anything once,” Cosper said. “Some work and some don’t, but how do you know what the response is going to be until you try it?”

For example, only seven people were on hand this spring’s first night of movies under the stars on the Commons outside the library, but attendance has since picked up. “We learned not to offer them in April or May again,” the librarian said. “The first night was a bit chilly.”

Some programs have been so popular that people had to be turned away. For example, the response to a recent children’s program was so great that the number exceeded the room’s capacity as set by the state fire marshal. The library had no choice but to deny entrance to the latecomers.

“There is nothing I hate more than to turn people away,” Cosper said, “particularly children. But it’s a positive that interest in the program was so great. I just wish we could have accommodated them all.”

The Boyd County Public Library does have the highest tax rate of libraries in this region, but that means it has more money to spend on improving its collection of books, recorded books and movies. Of its annual budget of just under $2 million, nearly 25 percent is spent on books, CDs, VCRs and other materials. Another 50 percent is spent on salaries.

The library is also saving money with an eye on expansion.

“We really have outgrown this facility,” Cosper said of the main library on Central Avenue. “At some point, we need to take a closer look at how we are going to add space.”

There is also a need for additional parking at the main library, particularly for handicapped residents, Cosper said. The library is constantly vying with patrons of Central Park and Crabbe School for a limited number of parking spaces.

Cosper came to Boyd County from a library in Oklahoma, and she says Ashland is the best of a number of communities where she has lived and worked.

“I love it here. I am so pleased with the reception of this community to its library,” Cosper said. “That begins with the jewel of this library — its genealogy collection — to its recorded books to its children’s books. I just wish those who have never visited the library would stop by and see just what we have to offer. I think they would be pleasantly surprised — and their tax dollars are helping make that possible.”