Changes at RCPL--more than the hours...

Russell County Public Library will be open to serve the public for 50 hours each week in the coming fiscal year. Honaker Community Library will be open for 10 hours each week and Lebanon Library will be open for 40 hours each week. This is fewer hours than in 2013-2014, but the schedule is the most we could manage with our budget.

The Library Board of Trustees approved the library’s budget for FY2015 (July 2014-June 2015) at their meeting Tuesday, June 17, 2014. Although the FY2015 funding from Russell County to the Russell County Public Library (RCPL) is slightly more than last year, our schedule this year exceeded our funding.

To balance our budget for FY2015 We have downgraded two full time positions to part time status, reduced other part time staff hours, eliminated one part time position, and further reduced library hours as noted below. Please note that each library is open one day during the weekend and at least one evening a week. We felt this would allow us to continue to provide library services to Russell County's citizens.

The only good news in this scenario is that there will be no furloughs (forced unpaid leave for staff) and no single day closures due to budgetary constraints. Excepting recognized state and federal holidays, the hours listed below will be the library's schedule.

To cope with the reductions in staff, RCPL has reviewed responsibilities of each staff member; many tasks have been eliminated for the coming year. In many cases the eliminated tasks are those that the public may be unaware of, but contribute to the smooth running of the library, for example, collection development tasks such as inventory or cataloging tasks such as database clean-up and re-indexing. Other tasks have been redistributed to accommodate reduced time in staff positions. We continue to depend on volunteers to keep the libraries running smoothly.

These changes will mean some changes in procedures and changes in some services available. Outreach to adult care facilities will be reduced to quarterly delivery. Local History services will be drastically reduced unless volunteers are available. RCPL's appearance at community events (outreach) will also be limited to when volunteers are available. We expect to continue to provide our core services, circulating material, providing Internet access and weekly storytimes for preschool children. Other programs will be drastically reduced.

The key to this scenario is the commitment of the library board and staff to provide services to our citizens and to live within our means. These changes are painful, but we remain dedicated to serving our community.

Honaker Community Library
Monday   Noon – 7 pm
Tuesday   CLOSED

Wednesday   CLOSED
Thursday   CLOSED
Friday   CLOSED
Saturday   CLOSED

Sunday   2 – 5 pm

Lebanon Library

Monday   CLOSED
Tuesday   10 am – 8 pm
Wednesday   10 am – 5:30 pm
Thursday   10 am – 8 pm
Friday   10 am – 5:30 pm
Saturday   10 am – 3 pm
Sunday   CLOSED