During the summer many of you participated in our Strategic Planning Survey or came to one of our Focus Groups to help us plan the future of GPL. Thank you! All of your comments and suggestions were heard, and influenced our final plan. Today I want to tell you about a few of your ideas we will be implementing in January.
As is very clear in the graphic above, the single most common request on our surveys was to increase the number of hours we are open. As you all remember, we reduced our operating hours from 62 hours per week to 52 during our financial crisis and recovery. We appreciate both your patience with our reduced hours and your honest feedback on our hours this year. Many of you included specific requests as to which hours would be most helpful to you and your family, and this was also taken into consideration.
Although many good things have happened in the last four years and though our financial crisis is behind us, it is good to remember that we are only now, beginning in 2016, getting back to an operating budget equal to 2010. And that means that now we can begin to address staff levels and operating hours. It will be a gradual change, but we are excited to begin.
Beginning January 1, our Friday and Saturday hours will change from 1-5 to 11-5. This increase of four hours per week is by no means enough – we realize that. But we are pleased to be able to offer this change which would have been impossible for us just a few short years ago.
In addition, we will no longer charge for entertainment DVD rentals. Although we do not receive many complaints about the current policy of charging for these items, it is not a real source of revenue and we do not see a need to continue it. Our goal is always to make our materials as accessible as possible to the entire community.
And don’t worry – this is only the beginning. Just as we work to improve our facility, we will continue to improve our service and our resources for you!