Saipan public library sees 31-percent drop in customers

The Joeten-Kiyu Public Library has seen a 31-percent drop in the number of patrons that visited the library from October 2010 to September 2011.

A summary statistics report compiled by the library shows that a total of 66,300 patrons availed of library services in fiscal year 2011, a huge drop compared to the 96,481 posted in fiscal year 2010

The month of July-the middle of summer vacation for students-posted the highest number of patron count at 9,180. The type of material that was most borrowed was the juvenile category or materials for younger readers at 34,940.

Library executive director John Oliver Gonzales noted that the number reflects patrons’ visits to the library in Susupe and the BookMobile Outreach Services, which goes to different schools and villages.

Gonzales said the fewer number of library visitors is a “psychological and behavioral” result of the reduced government work hours, which led to fewer days that the library was open to the public.

“When they found out that we had reduced hours, there was apathy from the community,” Gonzales told Saipan Tribune. “People essentially had no motivation to come to the library.”

Gonzales said the library’s management and the Library Council worked hard and succeeded in convincing the government to reinstate the 80 hours for their staff.

“Like the Public School System and the Northern Marianas College, we are also an educational institution and we actually serve the general population and not just a few,” he said.

The lack of staff for the BookMobile program also hampered the library’s ability to serve more residents. Gonzales disclosed that they only had one staff for BookMobile in 2010. “It took the government seven months to route the hiring papers for our part-time staff. Now, we already have two staff.”

With operating hours back to normal, Gonzales said that library patrons are “much more responsive” to their services. “We’re really mobilizing as much as we can to generate more traffic to the library and bring back the patron numbers to what we had before.”

He said they plan to strengthen their partnership with the government, the private sector, and non-profit organizations such as the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, the Northern Marianas College, Saipan Rotary Club, Library Friends, and the Public School System to have more residents patronize the library.

“This demonstrates without a doubt the critical importance of public libraries on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota especially in these challenging times. We’ve become more relevant and responsive at the same time,” said Gonzales.