Annual report for fiscal year 2005 

Annual report for fiscal year 2006:        

Connecting You to a World of Ideas 
Our mission statement, “The Sioux City Public Library provides equal access to a world of ideas and information for community enrichment,” is the Library’s commitment to our community. Everything that goes on at the Library in a given year is to fulfill that mission, which I sometimes shorten to, “connecting you to a world of ideas.”
During the past year Sioux City Public Library’s collections, services, and programs connected 337,100 in-library visitors, 20,600 telephone reference questioners, and 245,800 virtual visitors to new ideas. Library staff partnered with other community entities to promote reading and literacy, to support lifelong learning, and to further connect our community with a world of ideas. 
Key statistics summarizing Sioux City Public Library activity for fiscal year 2005-2006 are listed above. Highlights of the Library’s 2006 initiatives and comments from several patrons about their library connections follow.

Betsy Thompson, Library Director

Developing collections that meet the changing needs of our community

• The initiative to make best selling books available for checkout from the Perry Creek Branch, without a waiting list, proved successful as a turnover rate of 9 checkouts per year on the popular leased books surpassed the previous benchmark of 5 checkouts per item per year. 

• To keep up with changing video formats, Morningside Branch began offering DVDs for circulation in September 2005, expanding a format first introduced at The Wilbur Aalfs (Main) Library in November 2001.
• In June, circulation of books-on-CD surpassed that of books-on-tape as migration to the new digital format continued. A questionnaire in May assessed patron interest in downloadable audiobooks.
• Building on the popularity of young adult graphic novels, The Wilbur Aalfs (Main) Library introduced a general graphic novel collection in January, expanding this format to all ages.

Nurturing a love of reading in children

• Sponsoring a total of 508 programs attended by 13,071 children and adults, Youth Services staff presented 60 more programs than last year. 
• A grant from the Friends of the Library enabled staff to give books to 39 elementary classroom libraries during a month-long Hans Christian Andersen celebration culminating in a Library program with LAMB Productions Theatre and complimentary tickets to HONK! The celebration reached 952 children and teachers in 11 schools. 

“I wanted to thank you for coming to talk with the second graders about Hans Christian Andersen. You did a wonderful job and the children (and I) really enjoyed your program and your reading. We also very much appreciate the book The Ugly Duckling by Jerry Pinkney that you presented for our classroom library. The children liked the duck puppets that you and your staff put together and couldn’t wait to get them. Your time and presentation was appreciated, and just renewed to our students and myself what a wonderful resource we have in our city’s library system.” —November 2005

• 1,720 children signed up for Paws, Claws, Scales & Tails summer reading and 62% completed the requirements to earn a free paperback courtesy of the Friends of the Library, an increase of 10% more finishers over last year. In addition, 343 teens took part in Cinema Summer.

Bookmark Drawing Contest At a June press conference the City Manager congratulated finalists in the Library’s Reading Buddy Drawing Contest—a contest challenging area 3rd and 4th graders to imagine who they would like to read with and why. As the grand prize winner, Perry the Turtle will be the Library’s spokes-character for the coming year.

Expanding access to a world of ideas

• Using State of Iowa funds, an electronic infrastructure upgrade at The Wilbur Aalfs (Main) Library in July gave patrons 10 upgraded computers for full Internet use and double the number of special-purpose computers available for extended multimedia research and word processing.

“Yesterday I asked the Library staff for assistance in discovering the author of a poem I had recently been made aware of. I hoped they would steer me to a set of poetry books which I could peruse later in the week. To my surprise and great admiration, they not only identified the name of the poet, but provided me with a copy of the poem! I had parked my car in the lot and placed a dime (12 minutes) in the meter and still had several minutes left when I returned.”  —March 2006

• Busy public Internet workstations logged 1.3 logins per keyboard during every hour of business at the Main and Morningside Libraries.
• The wireless network at The Wilbur Aalfs (Main) Library averaged 10 logins per day by those who brought in their own laptop computers to access the Internet.
• As part of its $55,000 Endowment distribution, the Sioux City Public Library Foundation funded a $12,000 digital microfilm reader, bringing email connectivity to the microfilm format.

“I am delighted with the clarity and legibility of the images and with the service which you provide. Never have I received anything from a library via email before and never has a library responded to a request for information in just one day.” —March 2006

• 120 volunteers donated 2,892 hours behind the scenes enhancing a variety of Library services. The Perry Creek Branch could not remain open without a crew of dedicated volunteers.

Weaving the Library into the fabric of the community

• Continuing a 16-year partnership, children’s librarians connected with 75 Head Start teachers during their beginning-of-the-year orientation, and helped teachers connect young children with Library books and services.
• The book van made 203 deliveries to preschool and daycare centers and 7 stops at a local half-way house for the federal prison system.
• As a partner in the United Way Bookworm project, the Library provided recommended reading lists, first school experience lists, and ABC/123 concept lists to students at 6 selected schools in Sioux City and Sergeant Bluff.

“The `First Day of School’ book list is a great idea! I’m a teacher and I want to congratulate you on all the wonderful services you offer to children and their parents. Your summer reading program was great!” —August 2005

• The Library partnered with the Sioux City Musketeers, who visited grade school classrooms to deliver the message “Reading is Cool” to 5,000 students.
• In support of the English as a second language students at Mary J. Treglia Community House, staff prepared resource lists about money management, finding a job, home and health concerns, and travel and transportation. This six-month partnership culminated with a Library orientation for 75 adults.
• Staff presented discussion programs to local book and study clubs on the 2006 All Iowa Reads selection, Gilead, in partnership with the state-wide reading program. 
• Morningside Branch Library staff, at the invitation of the Morningside Commercial Club, served as parade marshals in the May 2006 Morningside Days Parade.

Library Board of Trustees 2005-2006
Matthew J. Basye, President
Donald M. (Skip) Meisner, Vice President
Joyce Mills Beumler, Secretary
George E. Duchossois
Fred T. Morrison
Cathy M. Perley
Lillyan Rodriguez
Betsy J. Thompson, Library Director

Budget Summary (not audited)
City Appropriation  $2,345,482
Expenditures
Personnel  $1,681,761
Materials   $316,708
Plant/Operations/Equipment  $315,323
Gifts & Grants Received  $118,687
Including major gifts of $55,116 from the Sioux
City Public Library Foundation, $46,451 from
State of Iowa funds, and $17,120 from the
Friends of the Sioux City Public Library.