Free help in finding work. Free fun, free solace and free tranquility.
People around the nation are finding all of the above at places that have been here all along: public libraries. Now, the places are expanding their offerings because of the added attention from patrons.
City and county libraries across the North Olympic Peninsula also face upticks in traffic.
People come hunting for a job or a new career; families look for a good movie to watch at home; singles seek company while they browse through the magazines, and all types comb the stacks for a novel to take them away from it all.
Now, in the wake of the economic meltdown, libraries in Clallam and Jefferson counties are beefing up their job-search and financial-health resources.
The North Olympic Library System, which has four physical branches in Clallam County, recently unveiled the “Help in Tough Times” feature on its Web site www.NOLS.org.
The new page is loaded with links to career-search and career-change resources, plus places to go for help if you’re worried about mortgage foreclosure or other financial turmoil. There are links to sites on money management, business planning and resume-refreshing.
The Jefferson County Library site, www.jcl.lib.wa.us, has under Web Subject Links an Employment page that connects you to America’s Job Bank, ArtJob Online, the Occupational Outlook Handbook and other sites for job seekers.
The Port Townsend Public Library recently added “Job Search Connections,” a link to local and regional employment listings. The link is on the library’s site, www.cityofPT.us/Library/ under Reference Desk.
These proliferating Web services are available to anybody with an Internet connection.
Free at library
And as Americans look for items to cut from their monthly expenses, many find that the local library provides those items free, said Paula Barnes, director of the North Olympic Library System.
People are remembering that they can check out a free DVD instead of renting and use a library computer instead of paying for cable Internet at home.
But amid the influx of new customers, there’s no more money flowing into the Clallam libraries’ purses, Barnes said.
Visits to branches in Port Angeles, Forks, Sequim and Clallam Bay have grown steadily over the past many months, but the library system is in no position to add staff or hours.
“That’s the irony,” said Barnes. “People need us more, but we’re facing more of a crunch to maintain basic operations.”
The Clallam system’s budget this year is just below $3.083 million; that’s up, but not by much, from 2008’s $3.056 million.
The reason for the system’s situation, according to Barnes: Initiative 747. The property-tax-saving measure, enacted eight years ago, restricts growth in county library tax revenues to 1 percent per year.
The North Olympic Library System had eyed what’s called a levy lid lift — a raising of the 1-percent limit — but decided last year that a ballot measure to increase taxes would probably fail.
Barnes and the Friends of the Sequim Library, a small branch serving a growing population, also considered asking Sequim-area voters to approve a tax increase to fund a larger building.
They scrapped that idea too, and instead began a remodeling project that closed the Sequim Library in mid-January. A grand reopening is planned for mid-April.
Jefferson County
The narrative changes in Port Townsend. Voters there passed a levy lid lift last August, directing more property tax revenue to the city and the Port Townsend library.
The Port Townsend Library’s budget went from $800,754 in 2008 to $929,893 this year, an increase that allowed director Theresa Percy to hire a part-time youth services specialist and to restore weekend and evening hours cut years ago.
The Jefferson County Library, which is in Port Hadlock but sends a bookmobile with 2,500 items into the rural reaches of the county, has a budget of $1.084 million this year after running on $1.671 million in 2008.
The Port Townsend and Jefferson County libraries are, unlike Clallam’s branches, open seven days a week.
At the Port Townsend Library, Percy is seeing heightened interest in job-search resources, from resume-writing books to newspaper classifieds to Internet job listings. Library computer sessions, she said, went from 3,164 during January of last year to 3,702 in January 2009.
Along with the infinite resources on the Web, reference librarians offer personalized help, Percy added.
Conducting a Google search on a library computer is a good thing that can be made better, she said, with some input from an offline expert on the wide world of information.
When asked about increasing traffic at the Port Townsend Library, Percy calmly responded that her place has always been popular.
Meanwhile, at the Jefferson County Library, director Ray Serebrin describes his situation with a bit more drama.
‘Head exploding’
“My hair is ablaze . . . my head is exploding,” he joked on a recent Friday afternoon.
Demand at his library has been especially high for DVDs: In 2008, the number of movies checked out rose 32 percent.
Overall, circulation of books and other items increased 6 percent, including an 11.8 percent jump in items checked out from the Jefferson County Bookmobile.
“What also went wild last year was event attendance,” Serebrin said, referring to the author appearances his library presents for free.
Among 2008’s highlights was the standing-room-only talk by National Book Award winner Sherman Alexie, at Chimacum High School on Sept. 24. This year the Jefferson County Library continues to present authors as well as forums on the May closure of the Hood Canal Bridge.
“We’re cheap entertainment. People can learn something and have a good time,” for no charge, Serebrin said.
The Clallam libraries also host free events featuring authors and experts — and Barnes hopes to keep bringing in speakers. She cannot, however, afford to pay them much, so groups such as the Port Angeles Friends of the Library have supplied funds for some author appearances.
The main Port Angeles Library is also more popular than it was at this time last year, Barnes added. Between January 2008 and this past January, she saw a 20 percent increase in items checked out there. The Forks Library’s checkouts rose 14 percent while the Clallam Bay Library, which was renovated and expanded last year, saw a 9 percent increase in checkouts.
“Public libraries saw a spurt in the Great Depression, during the recession in early ’80s, and right after 9/11,” Serebrin said.
All of this means a mounting workload for librarians and longer waits for patrons. But Serebrin, Barnes and Percy are gratified by their popularity.
“My staff think I’m crazy when I say how wonderful this is,” Serebrin said, “but we’re excited to have people discover what we have to offer.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
