What’s going on with the River Center Branch Library (downtown branch)?
n The members of the Library Board of Control are pushing for a major and expensive upgrade to this branch.
n Architect Trey Trahan was given a no-bid contract in August 2008 to do a “Conceptual Design” of the branch. The single work product, in August 2009, was a Powerpoint presentation that touted a complete rebuild over a renovation or expansion.
n In June 2010, the Library Board voted to include $19 million in their 2011 budget for a major upgrade to the branch … even though they hadn’t yet decided what exactly to do with the building. No studies based on need have been done, but the Library Board has not viewed that as a requirement.
n The Board members say they still haven’t decided whether to renovate, expand or rebuild, but the $19 million budget item says it for them: tear down and rebuild.
What are the facts about the downtown branch?
n 5th largest library out of 13 in the Library System, but one of the least used.
o Circulation is 11th out of 13 – very low, especially for its large size.
o Gate count (number of persons entering the library) is 12th out of 13 – very low also, especially for its large size.
n When the new Main Library at Independence Park opens, two functions currently housed in the River Center Branch will be moved there: the Baton Rouge Room and the Career Center. This will free up even more space in the already oversized and underused River Center branch.
n When the new 19th Judicial District Court opens soon across the street, the jury pool members from that court will no longer be using the River Center Branch as an “Assigned Waiting Area.” This will lower even further the current very low gate count by about 13,000 persons per year.
n Parking is a major problem downtown in general, and near the River Center Branch in particular. On-street parking close to the River Center Branch is scarce at best, and is usually unavailable. The distances from the closest parking garages downtown (the Convention Street and River Center garages) are not conducive to library patronage by persons with physical disabilities, persons with young children in tow, and persons with heavy bags of books and other materials to carry back and forth. Furthermore, in inclement weather, the walking distances, in combination with no covered walkways, make for a very unpleasant trek. There is not even a covered entrance at the branch to drop off and pick up persons and materials from a vehicle.
Why is the Library Board continuing to press for spending huge amounts of taxpayer money on this branch library, which needs only some physical updates? Why are they wanting to spend dedicated Library tax money on a project that brings very little value to the Library System? What is the real reason for such interest in this branch library on the part of the City-Parish Administration, the Downtown Development District, the Baton Rouge Area Chamber and a certain architect?
Please take a moment to review the statistics and chart on the next two pages, and the information on the back page. All library data was obtained from the Library System; it clearly shows that the River Center Branch is already much larger than it needs to be to serve the very few patrons that it sees and the very low amount of circulation that it handles. It certainly doesn’t need to be torn down and rebuilt.
Definitions of Columns in the Library Statistics Spreadsheet
(All data obtained from the Library System)
Column A: Library Name. Self-explanatory.
Column B: Library Size in Square Feet. Note that the River Center Branch has been listed as 29,950 square feet since it opened in 1980. As of a few months ago, the official square footage was suddenly lowered to 26,530 square feet. Even with the lesser-stated square footage, the River Center Branch remains in the same size category as the three large Regional libraries.
Column C: Population in Area Served. There is a Library-defined “Library Service Area” surrounding each library in the parish. The number of persons in each of these Areas is projected for the current year from the 2000 Census, and was obtained from the Library System, which obtained it from the City-Parish Planning Commission.
There are questions still outstanding about how the population around the River Center Branch was counted. The Library Administration has said that there IS double-counting between the River Center Branch and the Eden Park Branch, and between the River Center Branch and the Carver Branch, but it has not answered questions about exactly how many persons are in each of the overlapped areas.
Column D: Gate Count for 2009. This is the total number of persons entering each library for the full calendar year 2009. As mentioned on the first page of this document, the 19th Judicial District Court sends Jury Pool persons to the River Center Branch to wait for jury assignment. When the new 19th J.D.C. opens soon, it will no longer send these persons to the branch to wait.
In 2009, 13,546 Jury Pool persons waited in the River Center Branch. In order to get a more realistic view of Gate Count for this branch, we subtracted this soon-to-be eliminated figure from the 2009 figures, resulting in an adjusted Gate Count of 91,567.
Column E: Media Circulated for 2009. This is the total number of books, CDs, DVDs, cassettes, artwork, etc. that have been checked out from each library for the full calendar year 2009.
Ratios of Library Size to the Above Three Data Elements
Column F: Ratio of Library Size to Population Served. Each library is within a “Library Service Area (LSA).” This column compares the size of each library with the population within each LSA. The ratio is Column C divided by Column B. The green bars on the bar chart show that the population in the LSA of the River Center Branch is very small compared to the large size of the River Center Branch.
Column G: Ratio of Library Size to Gate Count. This column compares the size of each library with the number of persons entering the library. The ratio is Column D divided by Column B. The light blue bars on the bar chart show that the River Center Branch presently has far more than adequate space for the number of persons who use it.
Column H: Ratio of Library Size to Media Circulated. This column compares the size of each library with number of items checked out. The ratio is Column E divided by Column B. The purple bars on the bar chart show that the River Center Branch is the library with the least number of checked-out items compared to its size.