From the Alaska Dispatch:
The budget for Anchorage’s library system is declining. In 2012, it was $7.2 million, the lowest annual budget since 2006. But costs — for everything from labor to heating and operating expenses — are going up.
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To offset the budget crunch, library hours were reduced across the Anchorage system in 2009. Despite the decreases in availability and access, library use is going up — at about 2 percent per year. The areas seeing the highest increase in use all involve new technology — technology that was not in place when the city’s main branch, the Z.J. Loussac Library, opened in 1986.
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As the managers of the Anchorage library system look toward its future, one thing is clear: the city’s libraries must adapt to changing technology, and changing needs. E-books are the fastest growing part of the library system’s circulation. Computers are among its most-used equipment. Anchorage’s libraries currently have 84 public-access computers — hundreds fewer than other cities of the same size. But technology is expensive, especially when installed inside buildings that weren’t built to handle it.
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