Marion County Library
Fiscal Year 2004/2005

Vision Statement

As an essential community resource offering a variety of materials and services for information, enjoyment, and life-long learning, the Marion County Library is committed to excellence in programs and services and will guarantee residents access to information needed to meet the challenges of the 21^st century.

Revised statement: Approved Marion County Library Board of Trustees, March 28, 2000.

Mission Statement

The mission of the Marion County Library is to insure that all residents of Marion County have access to the library resources which meet their educational, informational, cultural and recreational needs. The Marion County Library impacts positively the quality of life in the community through continually improved library services and outreach.

Revised statement: Approved Marion County Library Board of Trustees, March 28, 2000.

Organization

The Marion County Library is a county-wide system serving a population of 35,466 (2000 census, 35,113 latest official estimate) through the Marion headquarters library, branches in Mullins and Nichols, and a bookmobile. The library system is affiliated with county government and the Marion County Library Board of Trustees is comprised of 7 members, each representing a County Council District.

Facilities

This county library system, headed by a professional librarian, is eligible to receive state aid. The Marion Library was established in 1898 and the present building, endowed by Andrew Carnegie, was built in 1905. The building was expanded in 1975 and totals approximately 5,000 square feet. The Marion, Mullins and Nichols libraries were incorporated into the present county-wide system in 1970. The Mullins library facility was renovated in 1973 and the Nichols library in 1974.

Staff

The 4 professional positions on the Marion County Library staff are the Director, the Head of Reference/Technical Services, the Youth Services Librarian, and the Adult Services Librarian. There are 8 full-time clerical support staff members and 5 part-time staff. The library staff is assisted by 2 volunteers. A professional librarian is someone with an ALA approved Masters Degree in Library Science and certified by the South Carolina State Library.

Hours of Operation

The Marion Library is open 6 days a week for a total of 49 ½ operating hours. The Mullins Library is also open 6 days a week for a total of 37 service hours. The Nichols Library is open Monday and Friday afternoons and Wednesday morning for a total of 12 hours. Open to the public:

Patrons

The Marion County Library has a total of 13,074 registered borrowers. Based on the 2000 census figures, that means 37% of county residents has a library card. It is estimated that FY 04/05 library attendance was 72795 – 2 library visits per capita.

Anyone who is a resident of Marion County may have a library card for free. All services of the library including inter-library loan are free to MCL patrons. Persons who reside within the Palmetto Library Consortia counties – Chester, Darlington, Dillon, Georgetown, Marion, Marlboro, or Sumter may use their library’s cards in our libraries.  Other non-residents may have a MCL card upon payment of the $10.00 per year non-resident fee.

Collections

The Marion County Library began FY 2005/06 with a collection totaling 82,226 items including periodicals, newspapers, film strips, audio tapes, videos, art prints, and microfilm. The book collection totaled 79,827 volumes which equals 2.25 books per capita. The state recommended average is 2, the national recommended average is 3. The Marion County Library subscribes to 176 periodicals and 14 regional newspapers. There are 1338 audio titles in CD or cassette tape format, and 871 video titles in either cassette or DVD format. The library system's collection includes Large Print materials and also registers patrons with the South Carolina Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped when appropriate. The headquarters library has a complete reading and computer system for use by persons who are visually impaired.

Genealogy and Local History

In addition to the circulating collections and the reference department collection, the Marion County Library has a significant collection of local history materials referred to as the South Carolina Room Collection. The mission of the South Carolina Room is to provide a working collection of materials to support basic genealogical research and the study of local history. The emphasis of the South Carolina Room Collection is on published materials. The collection’s material formats include monographs, volumes in series, maps, scrapbooks, pamphlets, and a few manuscript items. A subject vertical file is maintained for materials which do not lend themselves to other housing. This miscellaneous file has been added to continuously since the library’s establishment almost a century ago. It contains information pertaining to families, organizations, civic groups, and events of Marion County.

More than 322 users of South Carolina Room were logged and those patrons are estimated to have used over 730 items. Many of the visitors who signed the SC Room guest book were people who had traveled to Marion from out-of-state. Numerous persons wrote the library requesting specific genealogical information or requested that research be done for them.

Circulation

The total circulation for FY 04/05 was 73,877. The annual in-house use of materials was 84,968. Of those items circulated, 60% were checked out from the headquarters library, 20% from Mullins, 2% from Nichols, and 18% from the bookmobile. Circulation per capita was 2.08 books. The average circulation rate was 12 books checked out per hour.

The Marion County Library system added 4,844 new items to its collection last year. A total of 3,098 items were lost or were deleted because of extreme wear or being out-dated. Items available for circulation include bestsellers, current works of fiction and non-fiction, paperbacks, magazines, videos, books-on-tape, large print books, and cassette tapes.

Automation

The library computer system is the Polaris Integrated Library System designed by Polaris (formerly Gaylord Brothers). The upgrade in December 2004, to a web-based integrated system gives the library staff and patrons access to the latest state-of-the-art information services. There is seamless integration between circulation control, online public access, and cataloging. The library staff is provided sophisticated user data, circulation control, accurate inventory reporting, and instant information exchange between libraries within not only our county system, but the whole consortia through a shared database. The Marion, Mullins, and Nichols libraries are also linked by fax machines, greatly enhancing the ability to quickly transfer documents between libraries. These fax machines are also made available to the public for sending and receiving. The use of receipt printers attached to the circulation module allows staff to give patrons a list of what they have just checked out which includes title, item barcode, and the date due. The receipt of Lottery funding for the past two years enabled us the greatly expand the library’s wide-area network.  There are now 38 workstations available for use by the public.  The installation of PC Reservation software has enabled patrons to sign up for and log-on to computer use without staff intervention.  This has freed up Reference staff to provide more information services.  The installation of LPT1 has made it possible to for printing to be controlled and has cut down on wasteful printing.  The library could not afford to continue to provide this service for free, but printing charges are affordable: ten cents per page B/W, fifteen cents for color.

Through our web-based library system, patrons and staff inhouse have access to our electronic resources from the PAC stations.  More than 16,384 persons tapped into our library’s resources via our website this past year.  More than 13,198 persons visited the MCL website from library computers.   There were 33,431 users of our electronic resources logged. Through the Marion County Library website, patrons have direct access to all the online resources of the statewide data base project called Discus – "Digital Information for South Carolina Users,” as well as the two databases subscribed to by the library:  Learn a Test Online Practice Exams, and Careers Internet Database.  The DISCUS project provides all South Carolinians with access to an electronic library of essential information resources. These resources are available to every citizen of the state, ensuring equity of access regardless of where people live. Remote access to the Discus electronic resources from a person’s home, school, or business personal computer has been available state-wide since September 1999.

The Public Access computers continue to be a high demand service area with an average of 643 patrons a week logging on. Over 1247 new computer use registrations were taken this past year.

The Marion County Library online catalog is available on the World Wide Web.   Marion County Library's web address is http://www.marioncountylibrary.org.   Click on Online Catalog to access the catalog.

Reference Department

The Marion County Library has a professional Reference Librarian who is responsible for the development of the Reference collection and for supervising all Reference services throughout the system. Reference questions are answered by telephone in addition to on-site patron services.

The Reference collection contains 2,522 reference volumes. The estimated number of reference transactions completed last year was 6,813. This total is down considerably from previous years. Patrons are learning to answer questions for themselves with less staff intervention. The library is providing more electronic resources and is investing staff time to enable patrons to search effectively. However, this still represents a substantial library allotment of resources and staff time. The Marion County Library is a member of the S.C. Library Network. Staff are able to serve patrons needing materials or information not available within our system by utilizing our inter-library loan network. The formation of the Palmetto Consortium has greatly enhanced our patrons’ access to materials. Our patrons have gone from having access to our individual library system total of 82,226 volumes to having immediate access to 784,557 consortia volumes. The library did an estimated 999 interlibrary loan transactions for our patrons last year, and provided more 127 titles to other libraries outside our county.

The Reference Department is an excellent source for: consumer and business information, keeping up with current events, receiving college and career guidance information, doing historical and genealogical research, and completing school assignments. There are typically more than 643 computer workstation users per week. Computer classes, available every Tuesday and Saturday morning are designed to teach patrons how to search the Internet more effectively, do word processing, develop Power Point presentations, and to receive whatever kind of help they need. Eighty-eight patrons have taken advantage of these classes, but any person who needs it receives extensive help individually when they are logged on and about 77 hours of patron training were provided.  In order to keep their skills sharp, library staff received over 337 hours of training during the year.

Youth Services

The library is fortunate to have a skilled and creatively resourceful  professional Youth Services Librarian. This position is responsible for the collection development and programming for children county-wide. The Youth Services Librarian and the Children’s Assistant conduct storyhours and programs, work with school teachers county-wide, and work also with community groups who are striving to address the needs of children and families in our community. The library is an excellent resource for parents, teachers, and care givers. A total of 5,052 children and young adults participated in library story hours and programs last year during the school year.

The 2005 Summer Reading Program reached an estimated 1,637 children. The 6,709 titles checked-out during the 8 weeks of the Summer Reading program represent thousands of "kid hours" spent not watching TV. Instead, those kid-hours were spent being creative, exercising the imagination, practicing social skills, participating in group projects, using verbal and written skills, and reading. Teens were involved in the summer reading activities as well, and the Young Adult circulation for that period was 852 titles.

 Begun in January 1993, the Welcome Baby . . . Grow with Books packet of parenting tips has been presented to the mother of every baby born in Marion County. At the end of the first year which was supported by a federal grant, the library elected to continue this worthwhile outreach on it’s own.  Contributions from the Marion County Kiwanis Club helped provide packet envelopes during the initial years and a donation from Marion Memorial Hospital enhanced the program by providing board books for us to give to each new parent who comes to the library and brings the book coupon included in the Welcome Baby packet. These parents choose their baby’s "first book" from a selection of the gift board books kept at each library.

Adult Programming

Library sponsored adult programming reached 377 persons this past year. Library staff members presented programs for civic clubs and literary clubs in the county. A series of classes this year to demonstrate effective Internet searching helped numerous adult patrons make the best use of our new online services.

The library’s Youth Services staff expends a considerable amount of time and energy providing training and programs for day care workers county-wide Each workshop is certified for credit by the SC Department of Social Services.  Through day care worker education, the scope of library resources is demonstrated, family literacy is promoted, and the importance of reading to children from birth through high school is stressed. By reaching the many caregivers through this continuing education outreach service, the lives of hundreds of children are impacted in a positive, long-lasting way.

The library also enters into collaborations with the county's school districts. Marion School District One and the Library were project partners for a three year Even Start Family Literacy Grant, and  library staff conducted Mother Read classes designed for low-literate adults who want to improve their literacy skills in order to read to their children.  Those who participated in the program better understand the benefits of life-long learning and modeling this behavior to their children.  This was the state’s first public library /public school Even Start Grant partnership.  That grant program has now ended, but library staff continue to be involved with the local school districts, serving on advisory councils, judging essay contest, and conducting training sessions.

A new computer lab, housed in the county's Old Records Building across the street from the library, is available for those who want to participate in group computer classes, and for those who want to make use of the library’s practice test electronic resources for longer than the library’s regular Internet sessions allow.  Funded by an Institute of Museum and Library Services Federal grant, the lab offers free computer classes of considerable depth to county residents, businesses and county government.   Congressman James Clyburn was instrumental in securing the grant for the library.

Service Commitment

The Marion County Library is committed to meeting the educational, cultural, inspirational and recreational interests and needs of the community which it serves. The library's aim is to provide a well-rounded collection which includes the selection of new materials and the maintenance of the classic titles. The library exists to serve as a center of reliable information, promoting through guidance and active stimulation the use of the library's resources to expand minds, open eyes, broaden horizons and improve the quality of life. The library staff and board of trustees are committed to keeping up with new technology, increasing the library's outreach, and forming significant community partnerships.

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