November 29, 1979 (Bookmobile Service Under the Gun?)

While I'm waiting for library matters to be discussed again, I'll put the time to productive use.

Carl Schroeder made an excellent presentation in defense of the proposed 1980 library budget. Don Kutchera appears to be the council member with the machete. At least he's the only individual who has so far brandished one. Whether any specific line items will come up for discussion remains to be seen. Perhaps the final decision will be to cut out another arbitrary amount, say $25,000, of next year's budget. What happens then? Do we cut back on the book budget? Does the ax finally fall on city bookmobile service?

The latest issue of Library Journal contained a short article on the falling fortunes of bookmobile service in a variety of locations throughout the United States. King County in Washington has dropped its bookmobile service completely. Circulation statistics had been dropping steadily for five years. Sounds familiar.

Oshkosh Public Library's mobile services have suffered a similar drop. The highwater mark both for the city and county bookmobiles occurred in late 1975 and early 1976. That fact came to light after I constructed a chart of total bookmobile circulation on a month-by-month basis over the past ten years. Since the spring of 1976, use of both bookmobiles has dropped, precipitously so in the case of the city bookmobile. If no major cut occurs this evening, 1980 may prove to be the final year for bookmobile service to the city of Oshkosh.