City Council Allocates Additional Funding to Restore Open Hours at Library in Fiscal Year 2024
On Tuesday, June 13, the City of Santa Barbara City Council approved the City’s budget for Fiscal Year 2024. After much feedback from members of the public who contacted them at both public comment at the City’s budget workshop meetings and those who wrote to City Council members, Council voted to increase the General Fund allocation to the Library department by $686,000 to restore Central Library to 55 open hours 7 days a week and maintain Eastside Library’s open hours on six days a week.
Library staff want to express sincere thanks to the public who took the time to speak about the importance of Library access and services in their lives, to City Council for supporting the Library in restoring open hours, and to the Santa Barbara Public Library Foundation and Friends of the Santa Barbara Public Library for their advocacy and financial support, which complement the City’s investment in Library services.
Santa Barbara Public Library is thrilled to share the news that we will be hiring additional staff over the next two months to return to 7 days a week. We anticipate restoring Sunday, Monday, and evening hours at Central Library by the beginning of October – in time for the ribbon cutting for the newly renovated Michael Towbes Library Plaza on October 21, 2023.
Some members of the public have ask questions about the budget cuts that prompted the reduction of Library hours during the pandemic. The truth is that the Library was struggling with maintaining staffing levels before the COVID-19-related budget cuts, after increasing overhead costs from everything from custodial and IT services without additional allocated budget forced cuts for several years.
Many people wondered how the Library could afford to offer innovative programs like Stay and Play, expand access through the Library on the Go outreach van, or launch new initiatives like lending BCycle electric bike share passes or Adventure Packs. Grants, private donations, or partner collaboration fund these services and programs. In simple terms, 75% of the Library department’s budget is funded by the City’s General Fund; about 10% is funded by the County, which provides a per capita allocation to all Libraries in Santa Barbara County. The remaining portion of our budget is comprised of generous support from community members through our non-profit partners, The Santa Barbara Public Library Foundation and Friends of the Santa Barbara Public Library, private donations, and competitive grants from the Institute of Museum of Library Science, the American Library Association, the California State Library, the California Adult Education Program, and private foundations.
These additional funding sources allow the Library to offer robust early literacy programs, invest in STEAM activities for school-age children, deliver services and collections to our most vulnerable community members who might not otherwise be able to access them, offer workforce development program in SBPL Works!, distribute thousands of books and provide insightful programming during our annual community-wide reading program Santa Barbara Reads, pay teen interns and offer career exploration workshops, host discussion on civic issues that matter to our residents through Book to Action programs, and so much more. Grant funding can’t replace local funding for basic operations, however.
Though City Council did vote to invest significant funds in restoring open hours at Central and Eastside Libraries, the Library’s overall FY24 budget did include a substantial cut to our collection budget – specifically digital collections. As more and more people enjoy the convenience of borrowing ebooks, digital audiobooks skyrocket in popularity, and online learning tools and digital databases have become standard parts of library collections, the Library has not seen a corresponding decrease in demand for print books, especially for children’s materials.
The Library seeks to balance the needs of users who enjoy physical materials with those who prefer digital access, but budgets have decreased, and costs have increased. While we don’t anticipate significant changes to the variety of digital or print collections this fiscal year due to generous private funding to supplement the City’s budget, it remains a concern over the long term. Because of the competing interests and tightening budgets, Library staff appreciate hearing from community members about what they want to see in our collections. You can learn how to suggest a purchase on the Library’s website. We value your input!
SBPL’s mission is to support education, literacy, and lifelong learning – and we’re excited to be able to extend the hours to make it more convenient for all Santa Barbara residents to access our collections, services, and programs.