Welcome to the Future

The 2011-12 Library Budget.
Due to reduced federal funding Douglas County's support for our library system has been steadily diminishing. This past year the library has been serving the community with roughly 30% fewer resources. There have been staff lay-offs, fewer book and media purchases and reduced library hours in all the branch libraries. However, this coming year, the budget will be once again cut but this time by 23%.

This leaves the library with about 50% of its former operating dollars. The result is that all the branches will be open fewer hours per week, staff will be reduced, and some services eliminated. In short, next year our library system will be manning all the branches with a skeleton crew and often be simply closed. But, bad as this may seem, it's not the bleakest future. At the end of June 2012 there is a very real possibility that the entire Douglas County Library System will be disbanded for lack of funds - completely closed down. Though no one can predict what this will mean to your local branch library, I'm confident that each of our local library branches will be severely crippled without the resources of the county system.