MORGANTOWN — It’s likely not a surprise to learn Sarah Palfrey believes public libraries are as relevant today as they’ve ever been.
It stands to reason. She is, after all, the executive director of the Morgantown Public Library System.
It might come as a surprise, however, to know she can back that belief up with data.
In the fiscal year that ended June 30, the MPLS loaned out just under 190,000 items. That number represents a jump of 8% over the previous fiscal year.
In that same 12-month window, the system welcomed over 129,000 visitors and held 590 unique programs serving 8,353 participants of all ages.
Depending on the branch, visitors can find everything from music to movies, board games to bird-watching kits and, coming soon to the Clay-Battelle location, video games.
It’s safe to say the MPLS truly is more than books — but you didn’t hear that here.
“I have a real love-hate relationship with the phrase ‘more than books.’ ” Palfrey recently told Morgantown City Council. “It’s what people always want to say about the library when they’re excited about it, right? ‘You have to tell people it’s more than books.’ It is, but books are at the core of what we do.”
And these days an increasing number of those books are digital.
Palfrey explained the system had 176,175 digital borrows in FY 2023, representing a 14% increase over the year before and a 60% jump in the last four years.
“About 48% of total circulation happens online. But with that, of course, the costs are also increasing,” Palfrey said, noting digital library expenditures are up from $67,728 in FY 2019 to $106,800 in the last fiscal year.
The MPLS accesses digital titles in one of two ways.
For newer books and books by established authors, publishers sell a license to the library. For all intents and purposes, one license is the same as one physical copy of the book, meaning one person can access it at a time and everyone else signs the waiting list.
However, in the event an author or book series takes off, the publisher can change the terms to increase the license cost and/or limit its window of use.
In this system, the library ends up spending the bulk of its available resources on a handful of popular titles.
“It’s like anything else, supply and demand. So as demand goes up, publishers have less incentive to give libraries good deals,” Palfrey said, refuting the notion that libraries are bad for book sales.
“I think that’s the belief, but that’s not the experience or the relationship that libraries and authors and readers have had in the past,” she said. “A lot of people discover their new favorite author at the library, then they go buy the book.”
The second avenue for digital books is through a service called Hoopla, which provides readers with a vast collection of less sought after titles then charges the library a small fee per use on the back end.
As of October 2022, the MPLS was spending a little over $4,000 a month through Hoopla, a cost “heading toward unsustainable” according to Palfrey.
“It definitely adds up but it’s great in that instance because it’s not due to the increased costs coming from the publisher. It’s because people are reading more. We don’t want to discourage that. We want to celebrate it,” Palfrey said. “It may just mean we have to realign where or how we use other resources.”
The library system, which includes the main branch and neighboring Aull Center, on Spruce Street, as well as branches in Arnettsville, Cheat Area, Clay-Battelle and Clinton District, has a current operating budget of about $2.29 million.
Of that, roughly $580,000 will come by way of the county library levy, which the system hopes to renew in 2024.
Zero percent of the library’s budget comes through late fees, which it hasn’t charged in years.
“People always get so stressed out about returning their books. We all have overdue books. It’s fine. Just bring them back,” Palfrey said, noting the library is, after all, about more than books.
“I think libraries are more relevant than ever, because we do have all the information in the world accessible through our phones, but there’s still a need for a public space to connect with people and not stay isolated in our bubbles, whatever they may be,” she said. “Stories are so much more impactful when they’re shared between people.”
