Response provided by Diane Insley, Library Director:
How long have we been at $85,000?
Update provided by Library Director, Diane Insley:
Mayor & Council,
My apologies. I went back through my county budget documents.
The library has received $85,000 beginning in 2018, which was only a $5,000 increase. From 2012-2017, the San Marcos Public Library received $80,000 per year. In each of these years, we requested $100,000 or more
What is the budget total for the library?
$1,914,838 has been allocated in the FY2022 budget. The money received from the county is not added to this total, instead it decreases the city portion. The library also receives about $30,000 per year from the Friends (last year this amount was $1 million).
PATRON TYPE (based on residence) |
ACTIVE TOTAL CARDHOLDERS |
PERCENTAGE |
City Limits |
32,651 |
68% |
Hays County (not in COSM) |
11,773 |
24% |
SMCISD* (not in COSM) |
2,096 |
4% |
Outside of our service area and issued a Texshare card or fee-paying card |
1,886 |
4% |
TOTAL |
48,406 |
100% |
*The SMCISD card number in the chart are students that have visited the library in person to get a card.
We have issued 8,088 eCards to SMCISD students that are not included in the total above. With their regular school issued ID number, students can access our digital collection that includes books, newspapers, and periodicals.
When can we start tying these costs to population numbers so that as the number of people in the county grow, and presumably the number using the library will grow, so the amount of funding will grow with it?
The Library Directors from all county libraries proposed this idea to the County Judge and Commissioners in 2021 and several times previous. In the county budget, there is not a line item assigned to library funding. The libraries must apply for social service funding each year. The Texas State Library and Archives commission has a formula that they apply to assign us a population served. This number includes the city population plus a portion of the county population. It is a number that all five libraries agree is a fair distribution.
| CITY | % Hays County population assigned by the State Library | % of total $225,400 awarded to each library by Hays County |
BUDA |
9% |
15.5% |
DRIPPING SPRINGS |
18% |
15.5% |
KYLE |
27% |
15.5% |
WIMBERLEY |
11% |
15.5% |
SAN MARCOS |
35% |
38% |
