Burns said if the library can find a location willing to take them — a clubhouse in one of the Crystal Beach subdivisions, for example — they could schedule events there “when we have a program we think will hold a good crowd ... It’s kind of an outreach service.”
The library’s programs include computer classes, story time for toddlers, tai chi sessions a monthly film night, and guest lecturers on art or history. In the 2007/8 fiscal year, library programs drew 3,345 attendees.
“We haven’t determined what it is we’re going to do away from this facility,” Burns added.
In 1999, the city proposed a different solution: Opening a Crystal Beach branch by 2009. Burns told The Log last year that she’d received a lot of requests from Crystal Beach for a branch, and hoped to lease a storefront or commercial property for that purpose.
“Retail commercial rents are very expensive,” Burns said in 2007, “but the best place for a branch library is in a shopping center ... Many, many cities have done that and it’s proved mutually beneficial.”
Burns has said that a good branch library would have several Internet computers, a small collection of fiction, and children’s books. If patrons requested books housed in the main collection on Sibert Ave., they could be shuttled out a couple of times a day.
This week, Burns said that with the city’s budget so tight, scheduling occasional events made more sense than opening a branch: “It would cost money, whether it was a rented facility or not.”
WANT TO HELP?
Do you have space to host a Destin Library program? Contact Jurate Burns at (850) 837-8572.
BY THE NUMBERS
At the end of fiscal year 2008, on Sept. 30, the library had:
•16,084 cardholders.
•43,945 items
•Cardholders visited the library 79,398 times and checked out 75,477 items. They used the public computers 25,104 times.
http://www.thedestinlog.com/news/destin_6724___article.html/east_library.html
