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May 4, 2009

Passaic Library baffled by borrowing

Monday, May 4, 2009
Last updated: Monday May 4, 2009, 10:29 AM
BY JAMES YOO
NorthJersey.com
STAFF WRITER
PASSAIC – The library board wants to know why some patrons leave Passaic to borrow thousands of titles already owned by the city's public library system.

The habit of borrowing titles from libraries outside the city cost $20,000 in 2008. Trustees would like to see that money instead go toward new materials.

Library staff this year found that 50,000 books were borrowed from outside libraries in 2008 by Passaic library cardholders, said Mario Gonzalez, the library director.

About 400 patrons borrowed mostly children's literature and preschool and picture books from Rutherford and Nutley libraries, and returned them to Passaic drop boxes, Gonzalez said.

But each title taken out by a Passaic cardholder from a library in Rutherford, for example, costs the Passaic system 40 cents. That added up to $20,000 in 2008.

What's got library officials baffled is why city cardholders would borrow books elsewhere when Passaic has most of the heavily borrowed titles.

"Every book people borrow in Rutherford or Nutley we have in Passaic," said board president, Walter Porto.

Library trustees hope the public can shed light on the situation at the next board meeting on May 19. Board members are contemplating solutions such as changing open borrowing and replacing it with a referral system.

Open borrowing allows cardholders to check out and return books and other materials from any library. It's free for cardholders if they take materials from a library belonging to the same consortium as their home library. But if they go elsewhere outside that consortium of libraries, a charge may apply.

Gonzalez, the library director, had no figures for open borrowing that occurred before 2008. But he said the numbers seem high.

"Fifty-thousand [titles] makes you wonder what's going on," he said. "Our quandary is why are they going [there] and not here," he said.

The city library belongs to the PALS Plus consortium, a program of the Passaic County Library System, and pays about $50,000 for a number of support and technical services the consortium provides, Gonzalez said.

The city library used to belong to the Bergen County Cooperative Library System (BCCLS) but left it for PALS Plus in 2007 to save about $20,000. At the time, it was reported that many of the 37,000 materials borrowed by Passaic cardholders were picked up directly from the Rutherford library.

Gonzalez said he had heard anecdotally that street parking was one reason city cardholders borrowed from Rutherford.

The lack of a full-time children's librarian in 2008 also may contributed, he said. A children's librarian is in place now, and Gonzalez has asked the librarian to display the exact books that are being borrowed from other libraries but returned to Passaic drop boxes.

"We know that we have the materials," he said. "We may not have 100 percent of the materials. But we have most."

Porto, the board president, said a possible solution would be to end or restrict open borrowing and replace it with a referral system. For example, if a Passaic cardholder wants to check out a book outside the city, the librarian would ask them to check with the city library first. But he and Gonzalez both stressed that it's important to hear from the public before taking action to address cardholders' issues.

"We need to find out why this is happening," Gonzalez said.

E-mail: yoo@northjersey.com

Posted by tumulty at May 4, 2009 5:05 PM

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