Add the Arlington library system to the ranks of those who have rebounded to pre-pandemic levels – at least by one metric.
After falling by about 25,000 active users (to 50,000) during COVID’s main thrust, the library system in February returned to its earlier level, library director Diane Kresh told County Board members at a recent budget work session.
“Our goal was to get back to 75 [thousand] and then keep going,” she said. “We all came together as staff, looking at everything we were doing with the lens of bringing back the patrons, trying to figure out what the patrons needed most from us. It was a lot of work.”
County Manager Mark Schwartz has proposed a fiscal 2024 budget of just under $18 million for the library system, up 9 percent from a year before, to fund a resumption of normal(ish) staffing levels – levels that were wiped out when the library system shut down in the wake of COVID in 2020 and took a long time, by national standards, to get back up and running.
“People made different life choices,” Kresh said, pointing to a large percentage of temporary staff as well as other personnel who departed, some retiring and others simply quitting.
“We’re still experiencing a little of that,” Kresh said, but the situation has stabilized even though the competitive job market makes it a challenge to recruit and retain personnel.
“There are always going to be people who want to make it a career,” Kresh said. “We want people to feel it’s the right environment. Fit is absolutely important.”
By the time the county government’s current (fiscal 2023) year ends on June 30, library officials expect to hit an all-time high in circulation of more than 3.2 million, owing largely to the growth in electronic options (print circulation is expected to remain below pre-pandemic highs for the year).
Schwartz’s budget proposal includes extra funding to acquire materials, both print and online, and to target more efforts at teens. Also in the works: Planning for new library facilities to replace existing ones in the Crystal City and Columbia Pike corridors.
