Ducktown could be without a library room if a new location is not found by Dec. 1. David Beckler has been providing space at no cost for years but now has other plans for his building. Library Board members said they might have to ask the county commission for rent money if they are able to find a location.

Members in attendance at last week’s Library Board meeting were David Beckler, Sheppie Dunn, Arnold Hambright, Ann Rymer and Nick Hembree. Wanda Cheek was absent because of an after-school program. Dunn said she had not gotten information from Commission Chairman Greg Brooks to notify Tiffany Boring of the meeting. Regional Library Board members Carolyn Smith and Jenny Rogers also attended, as did Commissioner John Pippenger for most of the meeting.

Dunn said the Library Board owes Beckler a huge debt for providing space for so long. She said she has been looking at possible locations. If there is no space available or no funding for rent, they will have to close the Ducktown facility or merge with Copperhill, where there is not much space available. Rymer said there are a lot of loyal patrons, and Dunn said there are complaints about the few hours it is open (6 hours a week). The Copperhill room is open 12 hours a week and the Benton site is open 19 hours. Dunn, Rymer and Rogers will look for a new location.

Members asked Pippenger to provide information about the expiration times for the new members. They said the terms of Beckler, Dunn and Rymer would all expire in 2009. Pippenger said he thought they were staggered and Sloan explained it is difficult to maintain a stagger when there are changes in mid-terms. Pippenger also said he would get the information about Boring so she could be notified of future meetings.

The slow economy is forcing cuts to the state budget, and all departments are being asked to make cuts. Libraries are no exception, according to Regional Library Director Lynette Sloan, who attended last week’s meeting of the county Library Board. She said the Fort Loudon Regional Library System will continue to provide training services but there will be cuts in allocations for materials.

Another loss will be the state’s book lease contract, which allows libraries to lease new books with money provided by the region. The contract allows libraries to lease new books, then return them for different ones. She said state funds will run out in December and federal allocations will be used to keep the program alive until March, when the contract expires. Sloan said it may not be renewed. Polk County has been receiving $1,087 per quarter for book leases. If that can’t be covered locally, she said, the books will have to be pulled. She said most of the adult fiction in Ducktown is through the book lease program.

Sloan said the region will continue to provide services, such as technology support, DVDs, electronic library, training, and a new package for story reading programs. She noted training is becoming increasingly important as “working in a library nowadays is not just checking out books.” A new program is training librarians to help consumers find credible medical information.

She said the Gates Foundation is not affected as it is a privately funded program to provide computers to public libraries with Internet access. She said the Foundation now wants every library in the nation to have broadband access, adding, “so far, they have paid for what they want.” She said the Foundation has completed this year’s round of computer donations. All regional libraries except Polk received $18,000 worth of new computers.

Asked about possible donations of used computers, Sloan said the region does not provide tech support for outdated computers, adding computer equipment must meet certain basic requirements. She also said there could be electrical problems at some local sites and there would be a need for broadband access to use the electronic library. “If you have somebody who will give and take care of them, fine,” she said, “but the state’s network service consultants can’t work on old computers.”

Sloan said the state does not require filtering software but there are federal laws requiring it for those under 18. No specific software is required.

Sloan also provided an update from the annual reports of libraries in the region.

Percent of library materials owned by the regional system: Polk, 96%; Meigs, 83%; Loudon, 68%; Roane, 52%; Bradley, 7%; McMinn, 54%.

Local expenditures for library services: Polk, $24,021; Meigs, $37,867; Loudon, $194,177; Roane, $500,602; Bradley, $973,228; McMinn, $353,435. Sloan noted that Friends of the Library organizations provide additional funds in many areas.

Appropriations per person: Polk, $1.51; Meigs, $3.25; Loudon, $4.48; Roane, $9.47; Bradley, $10.57, McMinn, $6.89.

Polk has been the only county in the state without a full-service library for more than 20 years.

As the meeting ended, Angela Lewis said she had enjoyed serving on the Library Board but was “unceremoniously dumped on my butt” by the county commission even though she thought her term expired in 2009. She said she had not been notified that she is no longer a Board member, noting, “All I can hope is that the new people will take it as seriously as we have and do what they feel is right despite what the county commission says.” She added, “When election time comes up, tell everybody what we went through.”