Town Budget Proposal For Fiscal Year 2009-2010

Darien Library Report to the Board of Representative Town Meeting April 2009 Budget Summary

We present this budget with the utmost respect for the current financial situation of the Town of Darien and its taxpayers. We have taken a number of aggressive steps to minimize our budget increase in this very difficult budget year, steps which are complicated by the fact that the 2009-2010 budget encompasses the first full year of operation of the new Darien Library building at 1441 Post Road, with attendant costs for operating and maintaining a larger building. At the same time we face a major increase in health insurance costs. The Library’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2009-2010 calls for expenditures of $3,061,349, an increase of $117,074, or 4.0%. Actions we have taken to hold back our budget increase to an absolute minimum include forgoing staffing increases required for the new building, asking staff to accept fundamental changes in working conditions, and making unsustainable one-year reductions in some operating accounts. These are detailed later in this report. The table below outlines the major categories affecting the budget proposal: Category

Increase Personnel

% Budget Increase

$16,968

0.6%

($16,317)

(0.6%)

Operating Accounts affected by the new building

$78,099

2.7%

Health insurance increase net of retirement reduction

$38,324

1.3%

Total

$117,074

4.0%

Operating Accounts not affected by the new building

In summary, all of the increase in our budget proposal is related to the combined effect of a full year’s operation in the new building and the projected increase in health insurance costs. The following table summarizes the major elements of the Library’s budget, and outlines the determinants for increases in expenditures.

Darien Library

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Report to the Representative Town Meeting

April 2009

Summary of Budget Increase Components % of Total Budget Increase

Contribution to Budget Percentage

Darien Library Staffing Decisions Salary Increases Position Adjustments Total Staffing Decisions

$ $

FICA related to staffing decisions

$

23,582 (7,814) $

15,767

$

1,201

$

16,968

14.5%

0.6%

$

78,099

66.7%

2.7%

-13.9%

-0.6%

52.8%

2.1%

1,201

Total of Staffing Decisions

New Darien Library Operating Adjustments Operating Accounts Affected by the New Building Building Operations Maintenance/Service Electricity Fuel Insurance Janitor Supplies Total

$ $ $ $ $ $

40,750 28,000 10,984 (5,949) 2,314 2,000

Other Operating Accounts Insurance Library Supplies Postage Printing Staff Development Internet/Telephone Outsourced Cataloging Total

$ 107 $ (7,000) $ (5,000) $ (2,600) $ (12,350) $ (9,400) $ 19,926 $ (16,317)

Total of Operating Increases

$

61,782

$

38,324

$

38,324

32.7%

1.3%

$ 117,074

100.0%

4.0%

Externally Determined Appropriations Health Insurance Retirement Total

$ $

43,712 (5,388)

Total of Externally Determined Appropriations

Total Budget Increase

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Budget Development Details Staffing In order to minimize our budget increase, we have taken the following steps to restrict the impact of staffing costs: 1. The administrative leadership of the Library – Director Louise Berry and Assistant Directors Alan Kirk Gray and John Blyberg -- will take no salary increases. 2. Other staff members will be granted increases of no more than 2%. The average salary increase across all staff will be 1.2% 3. The workweek will be increased from 37.5 hours to 40 hours in order to reduce our need for part-time hours. 4. We have held back on planned staffing increases and reorganized our staffing allocations to reduce the amount of supplementary staff necessary to meet service demands. 5. We have outsourced a broader range of acquisition services for new items, reducing internal staff clerical requirements. Total staffing will equal 29.7 FTE 1 for the 2009-2010 budget, less than the 30.6 FTE included in the 2008-2009 budget, and less than the 31.6 FTE projected three years ago as the final count for the first full year of the new building. 29.7 FTE is less staffing than the Library had in the three fiscal years between 2002 and 2005 when it was in a smaller building providing fewer services. Darien Library Budgeted Staffing (State Report FTEs adjusted through 2008‐ 2009) 35 31.1 30 26.3

27.5

31.4

31.4

30.6 28.3

29.7

28.2 26.6

25

Fiscal Years

1

FTE: Full Time Equivalent, a measure of staffing that accumulates the hours of part time employees into an index.

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Report to the Representative Town Meeting

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As a result of the actions we have taken with respect to staffing, total personnel compensation costs, including FICA, will increase by $16,968. Our staffing budget represents a decrease of 1.9 FTE from the projected staffing level for the 2009-2010, and a reduction in staffing expenditures of approximately 5% from planned levels. Operating Accounts Accounts independent of the new building A number of the Library’s accounts are independent of the expenses related to the new building, and we have made aggressive cuts (some of them unsustainable) and taken actions to reduce others, in order to offset other operating expenses that must be increased. 1. Library Supplies have been reduced by arranging for public printing to take place on copiers, rather than printers, with a lower cost-per-page for print, and reduced toner requirements. 2. Postage has been reduced to a point that will require us to cause our patrons to receive notices by email, not in print form. 3. Printing has been reduced with the same intent. 4. We have made substantial cuts in our Staff Development account, far below requirements for staff training on the new procedures and equipment in the building. The remaining funds will not provide support for any outside resources, no travel, and only minimal time for internal training sessions. 5. We are in position to make a significant reduction in Internet/Telephone expenditures because we have arranged for the Library’s Internet connection to be made on the State of Connecticut CEN network, with the only recurring expense an annual maintenance fee. 6. We are implementing an increase in Outsourced Cataloging expense as a trade off that allows us to reduce staffing requirements for processing materials in-house. This on-going substitution is now in its third year and more than pays for itself in reduced staffing costs. The total effect of the adjustments we have made in these accounts is a reduction in expenditures of $16,317.

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Accounts related to the new building Some of the Library’s accounts are affected by the new building, particularly those relating to maintenance and building operations. 1. Building Operations represents the costs of maintaining the larger building and grounds at 1441 Post Road. Major expenditures in this account include contracted cleaning, snow plowing, cleanout of the stormwater runoff underground capture system, garbage removal and window cleaning. 2. Maintenance/Service includes the costs of maintaining and servicing the Library’s systems. Several of these expenditures carry over, such as maintenance for the Integrated Library System that provides inventory and circulation functions. Others relate to the new equipment and systems in the building, including HVAC, elevators, the emergency generator, the building management system that controls energy usage, and the materials handling system that sorts returned items. 3. Energy demand in the new building for heating and cooling is projected to be no more than in our older building, despite a doubling in size. An increase in electricity demand to run the heat pumps that convert the geothermal system’s water flow to heating and cooling will be offset by a decrease in heating fuel, as the new building has no fuel burning requirement. We are, however, projecting a 4% increase in electricity rates, per advice from the Town of Darien. 4. We will incur an increase in property and liability insurance rates in line with the greater value of the new building. We have budgeted the rate provided us by the broker for the Town’s existing policy. 5. We will experience an increase in janitor supplies, and have budgeted for those costs not included in our contract with our outside cleaning service. The total effect of the increases to these accounts related to the new building is an increase in expenditures of $78,099. This amount alone represents the equivalent of a 2.7% increase in the budget. Health Insurance/Retirement Accounts Health insurance expenditures are projected to increase for two reasons. First, we are experiencing an increase of demand for participation in the health insurance program because several employees, who had previously taken health Darien Library

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insurance coverage on a spouse’s employer’s account, are now the sole employed member of the family and have exercised their right to participate in the health insurance program offered by the Town. Second, we are budgeting a 13.4% increase in health insurance rates per guidance received from the Town. This increase in projected health insurance costs, partially offset by a reduction in retirement costs, results in a $38,324 increase, the equivalent to a 1.3% increase in our budget on its own. Initiatives in the New Darien Library to Reduce Operating Costs 1,600 families donated $24 million to build the New Darien Library. The new building is planned as Darien’s library for the 21st century, responding to the needs of the community. During the planning for the construction, we were careful to invest in permanent, low maintenance materials that are intended to allow the building to last for a century without major renovation. The building management system is designed to provide low cost operation. Prior to construction we cleared the site of a major environmental spill, expending privately raised funds beyond those available from the State of CT Clean-up Fund. Also, as part of our construction we agreed to install a bioswale retention system as a demonstration project for the Town, to pilot a means of retaining stormwater run-off on site. The total of these expenditures approached $1 million. In addition to these fundamental steps to provide a well-designed, careful building to the community, we have undertaken two major investments to reduce operating cost in the new building. Integrated Materials Handling/RFID System Darien Library has installed the first fully-integrated materials handling/RFID system of any library in New England or the Middle Atlantic states, at a cost of $750,000. Books and other items will be enabled for self-check and automated return, with the items placed automatically by conveyor on carts, ready for return to the shelves. We have carefully planned our staffing and the structure of the Library’s service desks (we will not have circulation desks in the Library, for example) around this initiative, which we have been evaluating for more than five years. As a result, our staffing levels will be 2.0 FTEs lower after the first six months of operation than they otherwise would have been.

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Standing-column Geothermal Well System The Library installed in the new building a geothermal well system which provides cost-effective heating and cooling, at an expense of $622,000. The new system is projected to be 40% less costly than a standard HVAC system, and the new building’s heating and cooling demand is projected by our engineers to be the same as the old library building’s energy usage. Continuing Initiatives to Reduce Operating Costs Darien Library is an extraordinarily efficient and cost-effective library. The Friends of the Darien Library have made significant investments over the past ten years to improve staff productivity. This can be seen from a number of objective measures: The Connecticut State Library measured the cost to circulate items among state libraries several years ago, and Darien Library was shown to have the least cost of all libraries studied. Library staff is also cost effective, as measured by a comparative index of Staff Salary Costs per Item Circulated for 2007-2008: Staff Salary Costs per Item Circulated 2007‐2008 (Indexed to Darien Library = 100) 300

235

250 164

200 150 100 50

100

120

178

181

190

250

Note that the cost in total staff salaries to circulate an item is 20% more at the next most cost-effective library, New Canaan

0

The following table compares staffing, as measured by FTE and circulation statistics among regional libraries for 2007-2008, the latest year for which data is available.

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Community

Circulation

FTE Staffing

Circulation per FTE

Greenwich

1,394,193

116.0

12,019

New Canaan

478,697

28.0

17,096

Norwalk

531,358

73.0

7,279

Stamford

981,351

121.0

8,110

Weston

65,624

4.9

13,393

Westport

775,357

46.0

16,856

Wilton

329,873

26.5

12,448

Weighted Average Circulation Per FTE

10,969

Circulation Darien

796,111

FTE Staffing 26.6

29,929

The Library staff, as shown above, is approximately three times as productive as the average of libraries in the region, measured by the broadest possible measure – circulation per employee. This is especially noteworthy since Darien Library also provides a rich set of resources to the community not measured in these statistics, and has a national reputation for customer service. Darien Library has consistently invested privately raised funds in technology measures to improve productivity, which can be observed from the trend of circulation per FTE.

Note Darien Library’s ability to realize productivity improvements over time, when local libraries have not kept pace in terms of this measure.

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The Library’s Central Role in Darien The New Darien Library is a community center; a distribution center for books, magazines, DVDs, videos, books on tape, technology and other materials; a cultural center for programs for all ages; a haven for study and research; a busy technology and continuing education hub; a resource for Town government and many community organizations. Library users want to have the Library open when it is convenient for them to use it – and they ask that the Library provide resources to them even when it is closed. More than eighty-five percent of Darien’s residents hold Library cards; it is the most active public library in Connecticut on a per capita basis, and it is far and away the most efficient library in the state. Darien Library support from the Town is a cost-effective expenditure of public funds, providing a clear example of the most fiscally-sound means to achieve the high level of customer service expected by Darien residents. The Library serves the entire community, offering substantial value for the tax dollars expended on services. For many, the Library is the most used facility in Town. A study published in the October 2008 issue of American Libraries, the official magazine of the American Library Association, ranked Darien Library eighth in the country among libraries its size. (This survey was based on objective statistical measures such as the number of books owned and circulated, the number of visits made by residents, and the cost effectiveness of the Library’s operation; Darien Library has been ranked in the top 10 in each of the survey’s nine years.) A Gannett News Service article published on July 17, 2008 ranked Darien Library twelfth highest among all libraries in the country in circulation per capita. 2 The Community’s Foremost Example of a Public-Private Partnership The New Darien Library January 10, 2009 marked a historic milestone in the role the Friends of the Library has played for many years in Darien. The $28 million project to fund construction of the New Darien Library, which opened that day, is the largest gift to the Town by any measure, and stands alone in terms of commitment to the future of the community and its residents. More than 1,600 families have donated $24 million to date – a measure of support beyond anything this community has ever experienced. They were responding to the history of service the Darien Library has provided over the 2

Smaller libraries were excluded because of inconsistency of data for small numbers. Source: http://data.gannettnewsservice.com/libraries/topcirc_report.php

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years, and expressing their confidence in the future of the Library, and its place at the heart of the Town of Darien. Beyond the construction of a new library building, the Friends have provided an additional service to the community, by remediating the environmental damage which had been inflicted over many years on the site we purchased for the new building. More than $1,000,000 has been expended solely for this environmental cleanup. Happily for the community, Darien resident and Library Trustee Dot Kelly worked tirelessly to arrange reimbursement by the State of Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection of the major part of this expenditure, but the Friends of the Darien Library will still incur cleanup costs of more than $250,000. Annual Support We remind you that the Library trustees raise all the money the Library spends on books, DVDs, research services, programs and other materials through an annual fund drive. We also pay for all on-going capital expenses from the Friends Fund. (This year we expect to spend approximately $250,000 on capital projects, as part of a total Friends’ expenditure of more than $1,000,000.) From this funding has come the investment in productivity measures that has helped make Library employees the most productive in the region, at a considerable savings in labor costs that would have been borne by the taxpayers. Service to the Whole Community The Library collaborates with many Darien organizations to provide services to the community, including partnerships with the Darien Community Association, Darien Public Schools, the Green Team, the League of Women Voters, the Senior Men’s investment group, and the Library hosts many civic forums, including the First Selectwoman’s Night Out, RTM District meetings, Charter revision and flooding hearings. The expanded Library’s many meeting rooms have been made available at no expense by Board of Trustees policy to the Town of Darien and its Boards and Commissions. (The first use of the new Conference Room was by the Police Department for internal training purposes.) For a number of years the Library has provided catalog services to the Darien Nature Center and to the Darien Historical Society for their collection of books, (and in the case of the Society, of their documents and historical Darien items)

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so they can be accessed by community residents remotely from the Library or from home. The Library plays a central technology role in the on-line presence of the community, assisting more than 60 community non-profits to maintain their web presences. The library makes available technology to assist non-profits with their activities, for example by lending notebook computers to assist with registration drives, and video projectors to assist in public presentations. The New Darien Library provides a much greater range of resources to the community – meeting spaces, quiet study areas, accessible collections, services to the young and mature alike – as an extension of its role as the cultural center of Darien. A broader range of community residents, from Senior Citizens to young children to Middle and High School students who fill the Library to study, from community residents who use the Library for enjoyment or as support for their work, all find support and resources available to their needs and interests, matched by extraordinary customer service that has a national reputation for excellence. The Darien Library Budget Proposal The major elements of the Library’s budget proposal are outlined below, and we ask that they be considered in the context of three important considerations: •

We ask our employees to work harder, be more productive, and provide better service than any other library, and we do so with the understanding that they will be provided the support necessary to match their efforts. This year we are asking them to accept an extraordinary change in working conditions so that we can maintain services while reducing staffing costs to an absolute minimum.

•

The Friends of the Library made significant investments to promote productivity and efficiency for Library staff, and they are committed to continue their role in the Public-Private Partnership. The Friends gift of the New Darien Library to the community this year is a watershed event in the history of this community, and in the Public-Private Partnership that has done so much for the residents of the Town of Darien.

•

The Library’s administration has demonstrated over many years that it will ask only for the resources it needs, and that it can be trusted to manage those resources in an exemplary manner. The planning and design of the new building included significant measures to provide efficiencies beyond what would normally be expected in such a project. The funding we request is the

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minimum necessary to provide the community the services it requires in this first full year of operation in the New Darien Library. Highlights of increases in this year’s budget request: 1. Salary Budget: ......................................................................... $ 16,968 •

The Library is increasing the workweek to 40 hours and granting to employees who continue in the same position, salary increases not exceeding 2.0%. Ongoing salary costs will represent additional expenditures of $15,767.

•

A reorganization of the Library has yielded a year-to-year decrease of 0.9 FTE and a reduction is staffing of 1.9 FTE from projected levels of staffing in the new building.

2. Darien Library Operating Expenditures: ................................ $61,782 •

Operating expenditures not affected by the new building will decrease $16,317.

•

Operating expenditures affected by the new building will show a net increase of $78,099.

3. Externally Determined Expenses: ......................................... $ 38,324 •

Health insurance expenditures are projected to increase of $43,712.

•

Retirement expenditures will decrease by $5,388.

The Board of Trustees of the Darien Library urges your support of this budget proposal.

Kim Huffard President, Board of Trustees

Darien Library

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April 2009

A Recurring Side Note on Non-resident Use of the Library As one of the finest libraries in the nation – renowned for its customer service, collection, lending practices and innate friendliness -- it should be expected that Darien Library is visited by some residents of adjoining communities exercising their right under state regulations to use the services to which they are entitled – borrowing books, DVDs and other items, using reference resources, logging on to the Library’s computers. However, it is important to note that non-resident use, which is concentrated in a few areas of the Library’s collection and services – DVDs and Books on CD in particular – is lower than it has been at any time in the past 10 years, and is at the same level of use as in 1991,. Most importantly, non-resident use of the Library has an insignificant effect on the Library’s tax-supported budget. Specifically, the only expenditures in the prospective Town budget that can be attributed to non-resident use are approximately $1,000 for paper supplies and $2,040 for RFID tags. The Friends’ budget pays for all books, DVDs, Books on CD and technology – so the additional items acquired for increased circulation are not a Town expense. More importantly, the Library has not increased staff in any way because of nonresident use, and, if all non-resident use went away, would not be able to reduce staffing positions or hours. All Library staffing decisions are based on a system that calculates position requirements from a zero-based model allocating service positions and tasks, not hours. We staff for service positions – Reader Advisors Welcome Desk, Children’s Room, Information Services, and Teen Center and Power Library – and for tasks -ordering and processing books, program development and delivery, web page development and update, circulation back office tasks, for example. None of these would change if non-resident use declined or even went away. We staff for service positions and for tasks, and then we automate those tasks (with funds from the Friends’ budget) so that volume increases do not require increased staffing. For example, though circulation has increased by more than 50% in the past six years, we are making fewer, not more, telephone calls to patrons because we have provided upgrades to our ILS that allow computer-generated telephone calls and email notification. We have automated our book ordering so fewer personnel purchase and process more books. The other elements of the Library’s town budget – lighting, heating, telephone, janitorial services, payroll, and all personnel benefits, for example – are not related to the profile of use by non-residents.

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April 2009

Actual 2007-08

Budget 2008-09

Proposed 2009-10

419,742 973,601 283,373 1,676,716

392,939 1,212,841 328,790 1,934,570

395,753 1,226,400 328,184 1,950,338

2,814 13,559 (606) 15,767

0.7% 1.1% -0.2% 0.8%

116,092 95,133 229,744 4,049 1,500 446,518

143,215 118,124 287,120 4,555 1,500 554,514

144,416 112,736 330,832 4,662 1,500 594,147

1,201 (5,388) 43,712 107 39,632

0.8% -4.6% 15.2% 2.4% 0.0% 7.1%

11,986 75,429 3,742 91,157

5,949 77,000 6,200 89,149

87,984 6,200 94,184

(5,949) 10,984 5,035

-100.0% 14.3% 0.0% 5.6%

Insurance Maintenance/Service Building Operations TOTAL

17,369 54,472 91,245 163,086

32,467 92,000 81,250 205,717

34,781 120,000 122,000 276,781

2,314 28,000 40,750 71,064

7.1% 30.4% 50.2% 34.5%

Library Supplies Janitor Supplies Postage Printing Staff Development Internet/Telephone Audit Outsourced Cataloging TOTAL

23,045 6,784 11,073 4,815 13,675 19,587 13,033 34,175 137,520

37,000 9,000 10,000 4,600 20,350 22,000 13,250 44,124 160,324

30,000 11,000 5,000 2,000 8,000 12,600 13,250 64,050 145,900

(7,000) 2,000 (5,000) (2,600) (12,350) (9,400) 19,926 (14,424)

-18.9% 22.2% -50.0% -56.5% -60.7% -42.7% 0.0% 45.2% -9.0%

2,514,997

2,944,275

3,061,349

Administrative Member Services Support TOTAL Social Security Town Retirement Health Insurance Life Insurance Unemployment Comp. TOTAL Fuel Electricity Water & Sewer TOTAL

TOTAL DISBURSEMENTS

Darien Library

$ Increase

117,074

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% Increase

4.0%

Report to the Representative Town Meeting

April 2009

Salary Budget

Our average salary increase for existing staff is 2.0 % and FTEs have been reduced by 0.9.

Town Retirement

Allocation provided by Town Hall

Health Insurance

We are in the Town plan, and have budgeted the rates indicated by the Town. A number of projected plan participants for 2009-2010 are anticipated to increase their coverage.

Unemployment Compensation

Library is self-insured. We are retaining the same budget allocation as last year.

Fuel

The new building requires no fuel.

Electricity

We are using the energy demand projections of our engineers, who forecast demand levels to be no greater than the older library, even though the new building is twice as large. We are budgeting a 4% increase in rates per Town guidance..

Water and Sewer

Projected usage equal to twice the old library.

Insurance

For the new building, we are using the best of the insurance rates provided through competitive bidding, pending a quotation from the Town’s broker.

Maintenance/Service

Maintenance and service on the new building’s systems. This includes HVAC, the geothermal system, elevators, building management, security and phone systems.

Building Operations

This includes contracted cleaning, snow plowing, grounds, cleanout of our water retention system and other services.

Library Supplies

This represents supplies for operation of the building. We have changed the basis on which patrons print, from computer printers to copiers, and this will reduce toner costs considerably.

Janitor Supplies

Primarily light bulbs, cleaning supplies and paper products for the public restrooms. Paper product use will increase with additional usage of the building. Some cleaning supplies will be provided as part of our outsourced cleaning contract. Our first full year of operation will show a reduced need for light bulbs, since the average life expectancy of the compact fluorescent bulbs we have installed is 7,000 hours. Next budget year we will need to begin a full replacement schedule.

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Postage and Printing

We will make major reductions in our use of mail as a means of providing notices and information to our patrons. Already more than 50% of users choose email, and we will direct this usage higher.

Staff Development

We have reduced staff development to an absolute minimum of staff hours, with no allocation for outside training resources.

Internet/Telephone

We have arranged to participate in the State of CT CEN network at no cost except for annual maintenance of the line. This account includes our expensed for telephone service as well.

Audit

Engagement fee for the Library’s GAAP audit.

Outsourced Cataloging

We have increased our outsourced cataloguing services to reduce the need for staff hours. This account also provides internal production supplies as necessary.

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April 2009

Darien Library Fact Sheet 2009 ™ Darien Library has been designated a top 10 library for eight years straight in a survey by the Hennen American Public Libraries Ranking Index. In 2008 (the latest available report) it was ranked the eighth highest of all libraries its size in the country. ™ Darien Library is the busiest library in Connecticut on a per capita basis. Darien residents borrow more books on average (28) than any other community. ™ Darien Library has the twelfth highest per capita circulation of any library in the country. ™ More than 85% of Darien residents have library cards. ™ More than 10,000 people visited the Library on the first weekend it was open. ™ The Library’s services to the community’s senior citizens are broad-based and significant: o A recent survey showed that inquiries at the reference desk by senior citizens represented approximately 20% of all queries. o Seniors are active users of a number of Library services created with them in mind: one-on-one instruction on computers, large-type books, Dial-a-Book delivery of materials to the homebound, and the Optilec low vision reader. ™ During the past year, there were 20,908 participants in Children’s Library programs, such as Storytime, Born to Read, Sleepytime, Drop-in Storytime, preschool, elementary and Middle School visits and BookMANIA!. Attendance at Adult programs was 8,781. ™ Users cite superior personal service given by the library staff as the primary reason they prefer Darien Library. ™ The library is a model of excellence in the use of new technology and hosts the web pages for 60 local community organizations. ™ The Library’s Blogs are providing both information and entertainment to those members of the community who wish to subscribe to a new form of communication, and have gained national recognition. ™ A study by the CT State Library in 2004 showed Darien Library had the lowest cost per circulation item of all libraries studied.

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THE DARIEN LIBRARY VISION Our vision is to inform, educate, entertain and enrich our community.

THE DARIEN LIBRARY MISSION The Library will provide access to a broad array of content, as well as training

and assistance to help people successfully navigate and use information. The Library will provide a broad array of programs and services to educate,

entertain and enrich people. The Library will be proactive and creative in anticipating and responding to

community needs for resources, programs and services. The Library will be accessible: physically to people during convenient hours

and electronically twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and three hundred and sixty five days a year, and without charge to the individual user. The Library will be the heart of the community, providing flexible and

inviting environments within which to access and enjoy its resources. The Library will be a customer-driven organization with friendly, professional

staff dedicated to creating a positive and fun library experience. The Library will attract, develop and sustain a highly professional staff in an

environment where teamwork, high standards and esprit de corps support excellence. The Library will collaborate with other town agencies and community groups

to serve the needs of the community. The Library will be a public-private partnership, funded annually by a

combination of taxpayer dollars and individual donations sufficient to sustain a library of excellence. The Board of Trustees will obligate itself to continually attract new trustees

who are accomplished individuals with diverse expertise who have the time, interest, and dedication required to support the Library in pursuit of its vision and mission.

Darien Library

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