Help your local library buy books by buying a book, or two, or several.
The Friends of the Rossville Public Library annual “Fall Book Sale” helps this branch of the Cherokee Regional Library better serve a community that extends beyond the city limits.
“Sometimes I walk here with my can and buggy,” Alice Monds said as she sorted through rows of VHS tapes, hardback and paperback books. “They have so many books and movies that I can’t decide what I want.”
A regular patron of the library next to the Rossville Fire Hall on McFarland Avenue, Ms. Monds lives one block across the state line in the Chattanooga neighborhood of Cedar Hill. She said she visited the book sale several times this week, to add to her personal library and to support the Rossville branch.
“I’ve gone to libraries since I was a little girl,” the 67-year-old said. “This is my favorite.”
Proceeds from this week’s book sale, ending Saturday at noon, will be used to purchase new books, magazine subscriptions and other materials for this branch of the Cherokee Regional Library. Officials said the help is critical in today’s faltering economy.
“In times of economic decline, library use increases,” branch manager Carmella Clark said. “Just in the past few months, people are cutting off their Internet service, coming here to check e-mail and checking out books after having dropped book club memberships.”
Earlier this week, staff at the Rossville branch issued 23 new library cards in two days.
The situation is similar at branches in Chickamauga, LaFayette and Trenton, according to Cherokee Regional Library director Lecia Eubanks.
Last year, 179,694 patrons used came through the doors of the system’s four branches, up 10 percent from 2006.
High demand for computer time in Rossville forced a two-hour rule. Patrons are limited to two hours of computer time until 3 p.m., when the limit is one hour so more students can work online, Ms. Clark said.
“There is usually a line waiting at 9 a.m. when the doors open to get to the computers — job hunters, students, people doing genealogy research, individuals wanting to get their e-mail,” she said.
Librarians agree the demand will continue to grow.
“We are under the statewide budget cuts ordered by Gov. Sonny Perdue,” Ms. Eubanks said. “The state’s 61 regional library systems face mandatory cuts of 6 percent, with the possibility of even further reductions.”
Those cuts mean $700,000 less from the state this year for libraries to purchase of new materials — that means the Cherokee Library System loses $20,260 of the $51,082 it had budgeted to buy new materials.
“That is devastating,” Ms. Eubanks said. “Our biggest mission is to provide books.”
She said the system tries to put in $1 per person per year for new books in the region system branches. With cutbacks this year, the amount will be about 35 cents per person this year.
“That is why Friends of the Library groups are so important,” Ms. Eubanks said.
By mid-week, the Rossville branch’s sale had brought in more than $500.
The non-profit Friends group is particularly important for the Rossville Public Library.
Voters in Dade and Walker counties recently approved special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST) referendums that earmark money for each of the system’s four libraries.
LaFayette has planned $500,000 of its SPLOST money to add to a $1.5 million county allotment from SPLOST to use as matching funds and secure state grants for the renovation and expansion of the Cherokee system’s flagship library.
The city governments in Chickamauga and Rossville budgeted $50,000 each for their local libraries, and Dade County allotted $80,000 of SPLOST revenue for the branch in Trenton.
Ms. Eubanks said it is up to the communities, and to the libraries’ “Friends.”
“Library services are important, but public libraries were never intended to be supported by the state,” she said. “If a library is important to (members of) a community, they should continue funding them.”
